[mystifyingpoi]

> physics major friends in college thinking it was pure snobbery for vi

I don't think it is snobbery, that approach would clutter the entire screen. Basically every single small/capital letter and symbol has a function in vim.

[jasperry]

To its credit, vim does show a help text with :q on it if you start it with no file. Back then, it was just vi opening to a blank screen.

[qsort]

set shortmess+=I