[scintill76]

You may not be aware that Ctrl-I toggles the mode of new text, not just selected text. I think that poster was saying this:

If you're writing a new sentence in MSWord, you type "Emphasize words <Ctrl-I>like this<Ctrl-I>."

If you write a new sentence in Markdown, you type "Emphasize words *like this*."

The keys are neighbors even, at least in a US keyboard layout, so there is not a reason most US users would say it's "faster" to type * than Ctrl-I. (And if other layout users disagree, okay, but I don't think that was in the scope of the original point.)

[TeMPOraL]

I think in practice, people write "Emphasize words like this.", then <left> *, then <C-left><C-left> *. At least I myself usually add markup immediately after writing the words to be marked up.

The problem with Word-like editor styling is exactly that the boundaries are invisible, and the style is applied destructively to everything within highlighted range, instead of non-destructively by the range itself. What I mean is, if in the example above, I want to change the emphasis to only italicize "this", I can kill the first * and place it a word later. In Word-style editing, I'll have to highlight the whole "like " sequence and un-italicize it, hoping I didn't miss a space or a dot that invisibly retains the italics and then screw up editing for you down the line.

[g15jv2dp]

> I think in practice, people write "Emphasize words like this.", then <left> , then <C-left><C-left> . At least I myself usually add markup immediately after writing the words to be marked up.

Is this very different from "<left> <Ctrl+Shift+left> <Ctrl+Shift+Left> <Ctrl+I>"?

[watwut]

I do not know what exact keystrokes people use. When I am writing a lot of text, I eventually converge into writing like I described. Because it is faster and I know what I want.

What I also know is that when out company switched to visual editor only, people stopped using these. They stopped writing long texts - and those were those the most valuable.

[kragen]

you will probably appreciate the keystroke command design in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41258170

[setopt]

Not sure whether most people do that? I nearly always press * or Ctrl-I before the italicized text I’ll type, and see that often among other people in the office.

[TeMPOraL]

I'm guessing it depends whether you type at approximately the speed of thought or not; in my case, I'm often halw-way through a passage before I decide I want it italicized.