NonGNU ELPA - evil-emacs-cursor-model-mode

Toby Cubitt coded the motions in the cursor model.
https://www.dr-qubit.org/Evil_cursor_model.html

First and foremost Vim's a in normal-state makes little sense in this mode. Evil-mode's (evil-append) is just l (evil-forward-char) and i (evil-insert). That is how you should think if you adopt the mode's cursor model.

Therefore I bind (evil-append-line) to a.

Entering insert-state at the end of line (evil-append-line) makes sense, whereas (evil-append) does not. The mode has the keymap evil-emacs-cursor-model-mode-map where you can rebind A if you wish.

With the change to a it is natural to have a look at p too. When you are not pasting a full line, Vim's p makes little sense in this mode. Move forward and paste is strange to prioritize with a lower case binding.

Therefore I swap evil-mode's p and P.

When you use the mode, you might find yourself only using the (evil-paste-before) command to paste. Vim's need for two paste commands is compensation for the normal-state cursor model. Other editors only have one paste command and this mode also mainly have one. (evil-paste-after) is still bound to P and can be useful, but you can contextually replace it with jp or lp.

Last I swap evil-mode's o and O so they are consistent with p and P when you paste lines.

These are all normal-state keybindings:

Besides these commands the mode manipulate motions so the cursor between characters model will work. E.g. E should bring you to the end of a word rather than between the last two characters of a word. These manipulations all work seamlessly and should feel natural.

Compared to Vim the efficiency is roughly the same with this mode. If you need to work with the next line you will need weakly more keystrokes. When dealing with the current line nugget you might need fewer. In most situations you will probably solve whatever you want to do, with roughly the same number of keystrokes.

Using a layer increase complexity because it does not only require that you use two keys. It also adds a restriction on holding down a key while pressing other keys. The following is not fair, but I find it harder to write "hEll" than "hello".

Ultimately the modal framework focus on editing text (working with the current line) rather than adding new text (working with additional lines).

Vim has commands that combine a functionality with a motion. A useful application of the command/motion behavior is Vim's xp which swap two characters and move the cursor forward. This is less accessible in this mode because I swap the paste commands (xP).

The lisp function (transpose-chars) does roughly the same thing without involving the kill ring. I bind it to gs in my init, but this is not a part of the mode.

(bind-keys
 :map evil-normal-state-map
 ("gs" . transpose-chars))

Vim's default gs is (sit-for 1) but evil-mode doesn't implement it.

Note that evil-mode's behavior is still available so e.g. ~ (evil-invert-char) will work on the (char-after) and move forward.

If you have touching delimiters like "(…)(…)" and your cursor is between them, then % will jump back to the first "(". In this mode there is no evil-mode way to toggle back and forth between the second set of delimiters when the two sets are touching.

Last the mode does nothing to C-v which is still working with a cursor on top of character model. In practice C-v is still usable and useful but it does have bugs tied to motions and the end of line position.

Emacs' C-x <SPC> (rectangle-mark-mode) works in insert-state but not in normal-state. If C-v fails I suggest you fall back on marking with v and use the C-x r bindings.