Unveiling Zed's Technological Evolution from Atom to Rust and GPUs

Exploring the journey and profound technological shifts from Atom and Electron to Rust and GPU acceleration with Zed's co-founders' insights.

Published 9 months ago by @thorstenball on zed.dev

Abstract

The Zed team's co-founders discuss the transition from Atom to Zed, highlighting the importance of Rust in achieving their vision of a powerful yet lightweight text editor. They share the challenges faced with Atom and how Rust enabled them to build Zed for optimal performance. The interview also delves into the significance of owning the entire technological stack, the benefits of zero-cost abstractions in Rust, and the freedom it provides in development. The conversation underscores their deliberate choices and technical journey toward creating a highly efficient editor.

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Discussion

How this relates to indie hacking and solopreneurship.

Relevance

This article is crucial for you as it unveils the strategic technological decisions made by the Zed team, shedding light on the importance of tools like Rust and GPU acceleration in achieving optimal performance. It emphasizes the significance of owning your stack and highlights the impact of smart technology choices on product development, offering insights that can guide your own tech decisions.

Applicability

You should consider revisiting your technological stack and assessing if tools like Rust or GPU acceleration could enhance the performance of your projects. Additionally, owning your stack entirely may provide more flexibility and control in development, enabling you to tailor solutions to your specific needs based on the Zed team's experience.

Risks

One risk to be aware of is the learning curve associated with adopting new technologies like Rust, especially if your team is not yet familiar with them. Additionally, transitioning to GPU acceleration may require significant optimization efforts to leverage its full potential, which could pose challenges in implementation and maintenance.

Conclusion

In the long term, the trend of leveraging high-performance languages like Rust and GPU acceleration in software development is likely to continue, driving efficiency and speed in various applications. Understanding the benefits of zero-cost abstractions and owning the tech stack may shape how you approach future projects, emphasizing the value of thoughtful technological choices.

References

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We Have to Start Over: From Atom to Zed
From the Zed Blog: Thorsten interviews co-founders Nathan, Max, Antonio about the vision and the technological choices behind Zed, how they went from Atom and Electron to Rust and GPUs with Zed.

Illustration of We Have to Start Over: From Atom to Zed

Zed

Discover the power and performance of Zed, the high-speed, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter. Stay updated with the latest features, tips, and best practices to optimize your coding experience with Zed.