So I have finally switched, not so much because I'm yet convinced Emacs in itself is the better editor but because it certainly does have more powerful extensions. I am still using vim-mode though, perhaps that's part of my problem... but I really don't intend to abandon the modes-approach, so I'll probably stay with it.

I'm getting along quite well, but one thing I find really unnerving is the behaviour of the esc key (which I have in the shift-lock position). I'm used to relying on this a lot as more or less a "panic key", which may not be nice but I find allows me to work generally quite a bit less caring about the keystrokes themselves, and thus faster.

What I'd like this key to do is just get me out of any minibuffer or special editing mode into a well-defined normal state. Perhaps most importantly, I would like it to not do anything unrelated,

• Simulate meta. What do I have an alt key for?
• Close windows I'm not even in at the time.
• Getting interpreted as the final key in some key sequence.
• ...

Is it possible to turn all that off and make esc an actual escape key? Vim-mode does make it behave kind of as I like in some situations, but when other plugins are involves this often breaks.

Alternatively, are there different options that might suit my kind of workflow?