Recs.
Updated
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Clean modal interaction model
Kakoune takes the modal editing system of vim, cleans it up by making it more orthogonal and more composable (no need for a visual mode, easy chaining of text objects as they work on a visible selection, predictible effects of commands due to the incremental visual feedback that the cleaned up model provides).
Pro Client Server design
Kakoune uses a client/server design allowing multiple editing frontends (clients) to be connected to the same editing session (server). That lets the X11 windows manager (or console one, like tmux) handle its window management responsibilities while providing the multiple window support expected from a modern editor.
Pro Multiple selection support
Kakoune interaction revolves around using multiple selections. They are not a simple additional feature, but a central one that removed the need for many others.
The common example is through global replace. Kakoune provide no built-in search and replace feature, as it is very easy to do by chaining multiselection commands:%s<pattern><ret>c<replacement><esc>
(%
selects the whole buffer, s
prompts for a regex which will be used to replace current selection with all the matches for that regex, <ret>
validates the prompt, c
enter insert mode while deleting current selection contents and <esc>
quit insert mode).
Pro Easy interaction with external programs and extensibility
Kakoune can easily interact with external programs, by piping to/through/from them, launching them through the shell, and receiving commands from them through its control socket.
That relatively simple setup is powerful enough to provide asynchronous code completion, linting, make/grep support, git integration...
Pro Text selection mechanism
Kakoune works on selections, which are oriented, inclusive range of characters, selections have an anchor and a cursor character. Most commands move both of them, except when extending selection where the anchor character stays fixed and the cursor one moves around.