IMO any editor you use should have these features:
1. syntax highlighting for a variety of languages; allows creation of custom hightlighting
2. programmable (or macros)
3. support files from different platofrms (UX, DOS, etc)

vi meets some of those requirments, so it's okay in a pinch. I really like UltraEdit because it supports syntax highlighting for many dozens of languages/environments.
The bad part is it runs on Windows - I think there is an X version coming out, dunno.