Recs.
Updated
Kakoune is a text editor that is inspired by Vim, but is designed to beat it at its own game.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Supports multiple cursors
Kakoune's main editing paradigm is designed to be more visually interactive than Vim's, and it achieves this by using multiple cursors. For example, instead of having a dedicated ex-command for global search and replace (Vim's :%s/search/replace/g
), Kakoune uses multiple cursors to visually show the replacement in-place.
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.
Cons
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Pro Orthogonal design
Kakoune focuses on just editing text, and delegates almost everything else to other utilities and programs. Scripting, for example, is delegated to your shell, and multiple windows/buffers is delegated to your window manager or a terminal multiplexer.
Con Steep learning curve
Kakoune isn't as difficult to learn as Vim, but it is still a large gap to leap for those who aren't used to a modal editor.