Take the time to learn vi, you won't regret it. After learning the commands and becoming familiar with them you'll be able to edit code a lot faster than with a simple editor like notepad or pico. A few quick keystrokes gives you access to simple commands (moving through text, yank & paste, delete) and very powerful commands (repeat, macros, search & replace). The fact that all the commands are on the keyboard instead of menus is what makes it so quick (and of course confusing & difficult to learn), you never have to remove your hands from 'home position.'
I actually never use vi, I've switched to vim, which stands for "vi improved." It comes with most Linux distributions and you can get it for almost any OS at
http://www.vim.org It adds GUI support, multiple undo / redo, syntax highlighting, multiple buffers, split screen, visual mode, and a whole lot more. Go download it and try it out.
Mike