Why I may not use emacs any more for coding

[Bill Lear]

Perhaps it's a new world, more full of greed and attendant pressures
to perform immediately, that pushes me to prefer things with more
responsiveness, but I have found myself drifting away from emacs
towards vim, despite my strong sympathy for Mr. Stallman's baby-beast.

The cause of this is quite simple, and I am hoping that someone
here can help me.

I prefer vi editing within emacs (via viper-mode) as I find it
efficient and comfortable, and this has worked wonderfully, EXCEPT
when I need to use this combination within an xterm, as is often the
case for me.

When using emacs inside an xterm (emacs -nw) with viper-mode, I find
an intolerable delay in the transition between editing and navigating
modes (reminder: this is effected by pressing the ESC key while in
editing mode).  In vim/vi or in emacs outside of an xterm, I can
effect this transition with such speed that my fingers need not pause
after the ESC key is pressed before I begin my input of navigation
keystrokes, whereas under an xterm if attempt this transition, it
seems (based on observation only) that this takes AT LEAST 500
milliseconds --- easily enough time to enter a half-dozen navigation
commands (up two lines and over four words: 'kkwwww').  Over the
course of a typical edit cycle, this interruption has become more and
more intolerable to me.

I have searched in vain, in a sporadic, but concentrated efforts, over
the past several years to find an answer to this conundrum ---
searching everything from X windows, emacs, vi/vim, viper-mode,
and other forums for an answer, to no avail.

Could anyone here please help me figure out how to do away with this
ridiculous delay?  If I could recover this responsiveness, I would
surely revert to the side of good and purity, and turn away from the
darkness.

Thank you in advance for your help.


Bill