Here is the one I use more than any other: open a vi session in a new xterm. At any one time I usually have between 20 and 200 of such sessions open.

Usage:

  vix [ -i ] [ -r ] [ -s ] [ filenames ... ]
  -i: create minimised (useful when opening many in one go)
  -r: readonly edit session
  -s: open all files in a single vi session
[download]

The code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
my $xterm = '/usr/X11R6/bin/xterm';
my $vi = '/bin/vi';
my $single = 0;
my @xopts = qw/ -cm +cn -dc -j -s +sb -sl 0 -wf -fg white -bg black /;
my @vopts = ();

while (@ARGV && $ARGV[0] =~ /^-/) {
    my $arg = shift;
    last if $arg eq '--';
    push(@xopts, '-iconic'), next if $arg eq '-i';
    push(@vopts, '-R'), next if $arg eq '-r';
    $single = 1, next if $arg eq '-s';
    die "unknown option '$arg'\n";
}

@ARGV = '' unless @ARGV;
for ($single ? \@ARGV : @ARGV) {
    my $pid = fork;
    die "fork: $!\n" unless defined $pid;
    next if $pid;
    my $name = $single ? "vix session" : $_;
    $name =~ s/lock\z/lock /;   # avoid fwvm trickery
    exec $xterm, @xopts,
            -name => $name,
            -title => $name,
            -e => $vi, @vopts, $single ? @$_ : $_;
}
[download]

Update 2006/04/06: added hack to dodge 'lock' trickery.

Hugo