My favorite thing with vi is that I've set up the F1 and F3 keys so that if I have a block like this:
{#
select something
from sometable
where something="some_value"
#}

If I hit F1 while in the block, it pipes the contents of the block to sqlplus (Oracle SQL tool, it used to go to dbaccess, the Informix SQL tool), and creates a block below the current block with the results. That way I can edit any sql with vi, and all queries and results are immediately saved (temporarily at least in the current vi session).

I have F3 set up to delete the block after the current block, so it makes for quick edit/execute/edit/execute cycles until I like the result.

On any WinPC I'm forced to use, I usually install vim, because I can't stand Notepad. Though I've never implemented the above sort of system from a PC.