Zed: Early Thoughts

2024-08-24

I’ve been using Zed a bit, and as a software developer on the internet, I have thoughts.

I’m using it to write Elixir/Phoenix, HTML/CSS, and some Markdown, and it’s trying to take the place of the venerable Emacs (running DOOM).

In no particular order:

A truly open-source editor! Written in Rust! Finally, a modern editor that isn’t a Microsoft embrace/extend/extinguish vector!
Goddammit is that a Github sign-in link? Shit.
The built-in vim mode isn’t bad, but it pales in comparison to evil-mode. Specifically I can’t highlight a region and :%s/search/replace/g inside it.
I think having : open the command palette is a bad idea. The way one uses the command palette vs vim-style commands has less overlap than you’d think.
It’s pretty! Look I’m not immune to eye-candy, and Emacs has always ranked low in that area.
I’m not getting anything from elixir-ls. Even Emacs automatically installs and sets that up so…y’know, damn. Two demerits, Mr. Zed.
Same with speling check in things like Markdown files.
Like most things, it ignores the “Emacs-keys” GTK setting &emdash; not being a GTK app I’m not shocked, but things like Firefox respect it, so it can be done. Ctrl-A not going to beginning of line, for instance.
Not sure I love this though:

the Zed Roadmap for 2024 includes "embrace AI" as one of the three items on the list.

I’m running solo at the moment so I haven’t tried any of the “multiplayer” remote-pairing stuff. I believe it’s behind a Github-login though, and I wish that weren’t the case.

Overall: three stars, worthy of your time and attention, also please stop using Microsoft products.

Filed under: software, review