A New Foe Has Appeared

Challenger Approaching

I used Visual Studio Code as my text editor when I started to learn how to code seriously and like many others, kept using it. Generally speaking, I have had no complaints about it. Some of the extensions were nice, there were cool themes, and for what I needed to accomplish for my learning and work, it served its purpose. Unless I had to do Java work, I used Spring Tool Suite of course.

Then I tried Zed.

Zed

What is Zed? It's a code editor made by the creators of Atom and Tree-Sitter, and is described as "code at the speed of thought". It really is code at the speed of thought. It's fast. It's snappy. It's responsive. You wouldn't think it, but I noticed the speed differences right away from doing work in both Zed and VS Code. From typing in the editor, opening a file, searching for something in your codebase, opening your terminal, and much more. Zed is so fast.

Zed keeps a lot of the same commands from your respective editor of choice as well. It even has a Vim mode and some built-in themes. The settings are a simple JSON file, and the documentation provides a lot of help in getting you started.

Multiplayer Code Editor??

I can go on and on about the smooth and buttery experience, but the other major selling point is the collaboration features. Think of Slack channels or a Discord server integrated into your editor. You can set up a channel, invite team members, take notes in the channel for your team, and seamlessly collaborate via screen share. The ability to screen share and allow your coworker to seamlessly jump in and out of your code is truly phenomenal. It even has voice chat integration too. No more Zoom, Teams, Google Meet plus screen share.

Start the screen share on the branch you're working on. Your team can seamlessly drop in and out and collaborate. All those changes are saved onto the branch you're working on. No need for your coworker to switch to your branch, pull changes, push them, and you pull. Share screen, pair program, coworker leaves, you keep all the changes, push them up. Boom. It's so seamless. It's like if you're in an MMO RPG, and you call upon some help, party up, and then go your separate ways. I've only scratched the surface with its capabilities, but can't wait to get more work done on it.

Too Good to Be True?

Is it too good to be true? Maybe? I have zero complaints so far. I've fully embraced Zed and am thoroughly enjoying the experience.

The only thing gotcha is it's only available on Mac. The Zed team is working on a Linux and Windows release, but the release date is still TBA. I hope it goes multi-platform very soon so more people can make the switch.

If you're on a Mac, give it a try, you won't regret it.

Check out Zed.