Just look at the trade-offs: - With non-modal editing, you get precise control of what's happening for every character that you type. In some ways, that kind o

Just look at the trade-offs: - With non-modal editing, you get precise control of what's happening for every character that you type. In some ways, that kind of granularity is powerful. But what's the cost of that fine-grained control? The cost is having to be explicit about anything "special" you do in an editor with the letter keys. (Namely, you indicate that you're doing something special with the control key.) Imagine having to type capitalized SQL statements in a true non-modal way (i.e., without CAPS LOCK). - With modal editing, you type in terms of ideas. You insert text when that's appropriate. When it's not appropriate, your entire keyboard (and every combination of keys) is free to do what an editor is actually supposed to do: edit.