I have yet to see a shell that has mouse enabled line editing support. It should certainly be possible though.

I do prefer vi bindings at the same time though. Vi bindings and mouse support complement each other well, you don't have to choose one or the other, just use whichever feels most natural and convenient in that exact moment.

> This weird command is presented with such a benevolent innocence as if it's the simplest thing in the world.

I think it's a question of context and familiarity. To a vim user, like me and, I assume, ahmedfromtunis, their examples do indeed seem simple and natural. Presumably, to an emacs user, the example you quote (if it's quoted literally—I don't use emacs and can't even tell) is just as natural, and assuming some comfort with emacs is presumably OK in a manual for the software!

It’s strange. I have heard this from lots of others too. I think I am an anomaly here. I can’t live without shell vi mode

I'm the same and in my opinion this is the best of both worlds. Taking the time to learn some of the regular (emacs-style) shortcuts is one of the best investments I've ever done. Even just CTRL+Y and the likes.

edit: And of course, CTRL+R, the best time saver of all

I used to hate it because I'd sometimes change modes without realizing it, but I began to appreciate it a lot more when I added a mode indicator -- a red 'N' on the rightmost side of the input line.

Huh. I don’t use vi-mode for more than jumping to the beginning or end of a line, which I like a lot.

Agree.

I WANT to love it - and if I was only ever working on one, or a small number of systems that I was the only one working on I’d probably do it. I’m ALL about customizing my environment.

However ssh into various servers through the day (some of which are totally ephemeral), and having to code switch my brain back and forth between vim mode and emacs mode in the shell would just slow me down and be infuriating each time I connect to a new box.

Or just <C-u> in insert mode. <C-u> and <C-w> are standard Vim insert mode commands.

https://vimhelp.org/insert.txt.html#i_CTRL-U

The vim version is much easier, if you ask me: 3 strokes, 2 keys and 0 combinations.

The one you suggest however requires 4 strokes (ctrl then o then shift then s), 4 keys (ctrl, o, shift, s) and 2 combinations.

The "cc" sequence deletes the line and switches automatically to insert mode. To forgo the switch, the sequence then becomes "dd".

I use qwerty and azerty, and in both I never felt typing the sequence was any harder than typing any other regular word. Generally speaking, I prefer sequential "shortcuts" then multikey bindings.

Instead of esc, type ctrl [