Ask HN: Is Another Editor Needed?

2 points by gethly 67 days ago | 4 comments

I have been stuck with JetBrains IDE for years now. I have no issue with the software(except the period few years ago around the time when they changed the UI and the background tasks were going insane which made me stick with old 2022 version for years), just with the company. I never liked VS Code, the UI does not work for me. I was hoping Zed would be my way out but it lacks some things I require, which prompted me to start working on my own editor.

It's a low priority project but I did the heavy lifting already, mainly the layouting, so the basics are functional. My goal was to see whether I can make desktop GUI programs in Go and it turned out that is possible and quite easy.

I started seeing posts on twitter about how people dislike JetBrains and Zed and VS Code and whatnot over period of few months now as I started paying attention. So I am wondering what is going wrong with these editors? For example, Zed being the latest one, I'd expect it to be flawless by now, having the knowledge of the existing editors and what went wrong with them but it seems they still get negative feedback nevertheless.

Why do you think people are still not happy with what we have? What do these editors do wrong and should I put more focus into mine and maybe try to make it into something bigger?

PS: obviously i am not talking about TUI editors but GUI editors.

ahmed-fathi 67 days ago |

Every editor starts with a point of view and ends as a platform. That's the arc. JetBrains, VS Code, even Zed they all started opinionated and gradually got sanded down by feature requests, enterprise needs, and the pressure to grow. The dissatisfaction you're seeing isn't about missing features. It's about editors that no longer stand for anything. Your editor is compelling right now because it reflects one person's taste completely. The moment you start building for 'the market' you join the same race everyone else is losing. Build it but know what you refuse to compromise on before users start asking you to.

gethly 67 days ago | |

Good points. What is your take on Sublime? Seems like it got left behind for no good reason.

ahmed-fathi 67 days ago | | |

Sublime proved that staying true to your vision is necessary but not sufficient. a product that never compromises but also never evolves is indistinguishable, to the world, from one that simply gave up.

malklera 67 days ago |

You see the complaints; people rarely praise a product; they just use it.

An IDE is a tool. What do you want to use the tool for? Put that as a priority and say no to everything else.

If the IDE is for you, look at the other editors and pick and choose each thing they do and decide how (or if) you want to do it. Are you happy with the result? That is a win. If somebody comes along with ideas/complaints, tell them no.