Zed code editor
Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter. It’s also open source.
Zed
I am a long term WebStorm user but dabble now and again in other editors. I tried to switch to VS Code once but couldn’t stick with it. It is the initial drop in productivity whilst you find your way around a new editor and the inevtiable muscle memory of shortcuts that are no longer there that make me bail out. Plus WebStorm does have some amazing features that I find extremely useful and difficult to live without.
But now and again something new comes along and I am attracted to the clean lines and seeming simplicity of the newness so I will be taking Zed for a spin.
Everyone has their favourite features and shortcuts that are hard to live without and I need to find mine if I am going to stick with Zed for any length of time, so here we go, I would like to see if I can configure Zed settings to meet these initial preferences.
User interface
- minimal UI, I always hide as much as I can in the editor to avoid the clutter and distraction of too many icons and menus
- centred code, I like code to be in the middle of the view
- no tabs, more distraction, I prefer to use a file/tab switcher
It seems I am easily pleased as that is enough to keep me happy in the first instance.
Minimal UI
It is minimal out of the box, very nice, nothing to do here.
Centred code
Easily achieved using the command palette (cmd+shift+p) and selecting workspace: toggle centered layout. This seems to persist when I close and re-open the editor. Perhaps this can be configured in settings?
Disable tabs
Easily configured. More space in the eidtor now, even cleaner. Use the tab switcher to navigate between open files (ctrl+tab).
"tab_bar": {
// Whether or not to show the tab bar in the editor
"show": false
}Shortcuts
Initial shortcuts I need to be reasonably productive in the first instance that might not be common across editors. See the docs for the exhaustive list.
| Command | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Toggle project panel | cmd+b |
| Tab switcher | ctrl+tab |
| Activate previous/next item | alt+cmd+left | alt+cmd+right |
| Multi-cursor | alt+cmd+up | alt+cmd+down |
| Multi-cursor on selected word | cmd+d |
| Toggle soft-wrap | alt+z |
Conclusion
That small amount of research and configuration is enough to get me going with the basics for now and discover other features/shortcuts as I code. First impressions are great, very clean and very fast. Now lets see what I miss or need to configure as I use Zed with a full blown project with all the usual madness that a modern JavaScript application and tooling require.