Announced the open source of the multi-user code editor Zed, developed under the leadership of Nathan Sobo, the author of the Atom project (the basis of VS Code) with the participation of a team of former developers of the Atom editor, the Electron platform and the Tree-sitter parsing library. The source code of the server part, which coordinates multi-user editing, is open under the AGPLv3 license, and the editor itself is open under the GPLv3 license. To create the user interface, our own GPUI library is used, open under the Apache 2.0 license. The project code is developed in the Rust language. Of the platforms, only macOS is currently supported (support for Linux, Windows and Web is in development).
The Zed editor is notable for its focus on organizing collaborative development in real time and achieving maximum polish, productivity and responsiveness of the interface, in which, according to the creators of the project, all editing actions should be performed instantly, and coding tasks should be solved in the most efficient way. Zed attempts to combine a lightweight editor and the functionality of modern integrated development environments in one product. When developing Zed, the experience of creating Atom was taken into account and an attempt was made to implement some new ideas about what an ideal editor for a programmer should look like.
High performance of Zed is achieved through the active use of multithreading using all available CPU cores, as well as window rasterization on the GPU side. As a result, we managed to achieve a very high response rate to key presses with the result displayed already in the next screen update cycle. In the tests conducted, the response time to a key press in Zed is estimated at 58 ms, for comparison in Sublime Text 4 this figure is 75 ms, in CLion - 83 ms, and in VS Code - 97 ms. Startup time for Zed is estimated at 338 ms, Sublime Text 4 - 381 ms, VS Code - 1444 ms, CLion - 3001 ms. Memory consumption was 257 MB for Zed, 4 MB for Sublime Text 219, 556 MB for VS Code, and 1536 MB for CLion.
Zed features include:
- Taking into account the full syntax tree of various programming languages ββfor correct syntax highlighting, auto-formatting, structural highlighting and contextual search;
- Support for calling LSP (Language Server Protocol) servers for autocompletion, code navigation, error diagnosis, and refactoring.
- Ability to connect and change themes. Availability of light and dark themes.
- Using VS Code's default keyboard shortcuts. Optional compatibility mode with keyboard shortcuts and Vim commands.
- Supports integration with GitHub Copilot to help you write and refactor your code.
- Integrated terminal emulator.
- Collaborative code navigation and editing by multiple developers in one shared workspace.
- Tools for joint discussion and planning of work in a team. Supports task management, note taking and project tracking, text and voice chat.
- The ability to connect to work on a project from any computer, without being tied to data on the local system. Working with external projects is carried out in the same way as working with code located on the local computer.
To finance the full-time work of the Zed development team, the project intends to continue to use a business model based on the provision of additional paid services. The first of these services will be βZed Channelsβ with the implementation of a virtual office for organizing the work of development teams in large projects, allowing several developers to cooperate together, interact with other participants and write code together. Based on Zed Channels, the Fireside Hacks initiative has been launched, within which anyone can watch the development of Zen itself in real time. In the future, it is also planned to provide a service with its own intelligent assistant in the style of GitHub Copilot and, possibly, implement paid specialized add-ons that take into account the specifics of the development of commercial products and use in enterprises.
Source: opennet.ru