I'm not sure that this project is still alive, but I'll try anyway...
I'm convinced of the interest of such a project. I'm a xemacs fan user, but it is incredibly difficult to extend and understand because LISP, no namespaces, bad API documentation and I always dreamed about a nice Perl editor.
Here are some points that I believe are important
* it should be easy to install : and easy to install extensions, and automatic updates.
So it implies that on all systems we can provide a tarball that contains all : the interpreter, the relevant CPAN packages,, the editor, templates, doc...
* it should work on all platforms from the beginning, including windows, to gain a maximum of developers and users. Moreover all modern IDEs have to be multiplatform.
* Good long-term conception (mean no limitations in the buffer size or things like this) but frequent releases.
* Not too many features : there's nothing more frustrating than features that do not work well or do not work at all. I prefer a few rock-solid features. so a lot of regression tests.
* for the GUI: overuse of context menus - for example, rather to have to remember keyboard shortcut or navigating in the menu for example to close or rename a tab, right click on the tab.
* GUI again: collaboration with Gtk2Perl and Gtk teams.