Searching for a Native Code Editor
Last week, my code editor froze mid-scroll, and that was the last straw.
I've been using VS Code for the last 6 years and I've long grown tired of it. It's laggy and prone to freezing after hours of use. Which, as a professional dev, is absolutely unacceptable. At first, I didn't notice it. My work machines were top-of-the-line MacBook Pros. They could handle the demands of running an Electron-based editor alongside the Docker and my local server. My personal machine is also has decent RAM and memory for it's model and age (2013 MacBook Air). So, I didn't really notice much lag while running my small, lightweight programs. Things would slow down when running XCode, but that's to be expected for a full-service IDE on a slightly better-than-average mid-range laptop. Honestly, things were going really well until a couple weeks ago.
I'm not sure if it's a VSCode update or my work computer being pushed to its limits with our 10,000 line python files, but something is wrong. Things were slowing down over a few days, but then things Iiterally ground to a halt when my editor stopped responding to my scroll. I was so confused. I hadn't seen a crash like that since the late 2000s. It wasn't difficult to solve; just had to close the program and open it again. Still, I was shaken. What if things got out of control? I'm a self-taugt/3-month bootcamp dev. I have an affinity for web development that does not extend to the basics of computing. If you were to ask me why VSCode stopped mid-scroll, I couldn't tell you much beyond 'scroll process crash'. To be honest, I'm not even sure if the 'scroll process' is a thing. What I could tell you is that, when weird things happen on the web it's usually because the website is using too many resources. Actually, this might be part of it since VSCode technically runs on Electron, which is essentially a mini-browser. So, to avoid this behavior, I began a search for a native code editor. I loved the native code editor that I used at a previous job, RubyMine. Actually, I would have kept using that editor but I ended up primarily working in Golang and Typescript/React at that job, so it wouldn't have made sense.
The requirements for my next editor:
- must run natively. No Electron!
- preferably open-source
- fast
- lightweight
- can be used with multiple languages
This post on the Log Rocket blog provides a great comparison of a few different options. I've decided to go with Zed for the moment and see how things go. It's not the smallest on the list, but it seems to be the most robust option. I just need something that works well, nothing more, nothing less