My first contact was using a program called Perfect Writer in 1984; part 
of a suite including Perfect Calc (spreadsheet using EMACS key bindings) 
and Perfect Filer (a simple database). Perfect Writer was, of course, 
just an editor (loosely based on MINCE), and included a formatter/markup 
language based on SCRIBE. Not much was customisable.
I still use MicroEMACS quite a bit. Never got into vi (pah!) as when I 
started with UNIX, it didn't exist. I am still pretty good with ed, 
though.
-- 
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
 
http://www.mirrorservice.org