they're both text editors that say they're highly customizable. although they're programmed in C you have to mod them with different languages. A lisp dialect for Emacs and Vimscript for Vim.
I want to edit one of them for going paperless in debate club, but hate Ms word with a burning passion. which one trumps that I should make a debate note taking plugin for? Personally I like Vim better, but the community is very divided, and I can't even find the correct way to download the latest version on OS X.