Oh, I so disagree. Modal editing is not about the modes.
In a text editor, user input either writes text to the file or does something else. Every text editor let you write to files so aside from aesthetics, it's the everything else that makes each different. If keystrokes for writing are not separated from keystrokes for everything else, everything else is confined to awkward ctrl- and alt- key combos. That's why it's a good idea to put them in different 'modes' so you can perform other actions comfortably. You don't need more modes than 2. Actually, in vim, you could see command mode and the visual modes as extensions of the normal node. Modes are really just a metaphor.
I on the other hand would like to see other non-modal editors. Vim is already the best and most customizable modal editor, but does anyone know a good non-modal editor beyond basic nano?
I've been using Joe's Own Editor the past couple of years when I want to do basic view/editing in terminal (I use Sublime Text for development). Really like it because it provides syntax highlighting for a ton of file types, let's me get around with arrow keys/mouse, and gives me an easy way to look up keyboard commands I may have forgotten.
You're using the emacs definition of major modes. "Modal editor" has a different meaning. Vim has three modes [1]. Emacs is not considered a modal editor, but some of its features are similar to Vim's last-line mode.
Emacs is IDE, like Eclipse or Idea. It contains text editor, of course, but it much more than just text editor. It's not fair to compare say GEdit and Eclipse in terms of configurability, because GEdit is text editor, while Eclipse is IDE.
What an unfortunate name. All search results are for the Minecraft editor.
It's also fairly obtuse for non-experts. A champion non-modal editor would have a learning curve as shallow as nano but more depth that could reveal itself over time.
It is indeed quite amazing how modal editing is usually defined by vi, which does so in very specific ways, when there are alternatives (like kakoune) which really show there's a whole spectrum of possible implementations of that idea. I wish there was a modal editor with the same scope as nano which would help introducing that concept to newcomers without aiming to maximize productivity / expressiveness.
Bill Joy: “One of the good things about EMACS, though, is its programmability and the modelessness. Those are two ideas which never occurred to me.”
“People don't know that vi was written for a world that doesn't exist anymore.”