They shouldn't ask about text editors

eFTE... I used xfte for a long time, it seems it has been revived now ?
This is good news :-)
Really lightweight, easy-very-fast-to-use, very configurable editor.

What the difference to emacs is ?
Well, it's a completely different editor, you can do a lot without having 
to learn shortcut sequences before (but you can use them too)·

It's (of course) less programmable than emacs.

Alex