My notes and issues with Zed

[babakfp]

I'll just paste my unfiltered opinions and issues with Zed here. I won't be wasting my time trying to help Zed, by opening issues and having discussions, because there are a lot of issues and I'm already tired of all the crap with Microsoft, vsCode, and the team behind it.

I have not searched for similar issues. I've just opened Zed and used it a little and write down some things. If there are duplicate issues, feel free to let me know, and I'll cross a line over them, with a link to the issue/PR.

Don't close this discussion. I'll just store my notes here.

There are good things about Zed, however it has issues and some UI things and features just make it impossible for me to use it in its current state.

vsCode is a buggy piese of garbage that the developers behind it, the managers, or who ever responsible, just don't care about fixing, improving, adding features, listening to developers.

I don't really get why Zed would add AI features, instead of just making the editor to just work. I don't like this. I don't care about it. And most of the people don't. I like things that I like to be added and fixed, instead of some crap that I don't care about. And I don't care why Zed team works on AI things. So, don't come at me with some explanation.

My notes may sound harsh, and like that I don't know that Zed is not ready for Windows. I know it's not ready. These are just notes. Things in my mind while testing and stuff...

Guide

By the Explorer, I mean the left side bar that shows the files and folders.

Notes and Issues

buffer_font_family and ui_font_family only accept a single font! it doesn't accept fallback fonts like vscode. make it work like this ["JetBrains Mono", "Pelak Medium"] or "JetBrains Mono, Pelak Medium" or both. buffer_font_fallbacks is different than what i'm asking here.

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SOLVED: if we have two moves in the edit history, and we are currently at the first history, by doing ctrl-shift-z we can move to the second (next) history and by doing ctrl-z we can be to the first (previous) history. if we are on the first history and do ctrl-s (no matter file is already saved or not), then we will loose all of the next histories and doing ctrl-shift-z won't work. it's not like this in vscode. in vscode, no matter what, it would work (unless when on history one, a new history gets added by typing. or by closing the vscode app all together). vscode doesn't even loose the history even if we close the file (i don't mean the editor, just the file tab). maybe this bug can be turned into a feature and off by default.

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when doing ctrl-f to search something, the activly highlighted single found token sometimes is not fully visible and sometimes not visible at all! because of horizontal scroll. its out of the view because of scroll position doesn't get adjusted properly. just look at what vscode does and replicate it.

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there is little to no difference in styling (color contrast) between the normally highlighted searched-and-found tokens (when doing ctrl-f) and the active highlighted token. this is very bad. i can't see which one is which.

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context from future me: when I wrote most of these things inside the settings json file using comments.

right now that I was writing the above comment, when i pressed enter and the caret jubmped to the next line and // got automatically added, the horizontal scroll position didn't adjust itself currectly. it changes the position in a way that i only see whatever is after // , so as a result i don't know that there is // text added automatically. this is a very bad thing. it should just move to horizontal position 0 whenever possible.

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i can see that tab_size is set to 4 in default settings, but it doesn't work. it works like it's on 2 instead of 4. only when adding the setting to 4 in user settings it does 4.

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i have 400 lines of vscode settings. i don't want to do this migration manually. just make it work. auto migration. 1 to 1 mapping.

also i have custom keymappings (key bindings, shortcuts, shortkeys).

UPDATE: THIS is great and it worked some amount for some settings. keybindings not included.

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there is a ton of comments in default settings file. i hope this is just temporary. there should be proper settings page.

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auto compilation for settings don't work at all. maybe it's not implemented yet?

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buffer_font_family is a odd name! name it to code_font_family.

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super ugly, hurts my eyes, too bright, all zed themes. vscode dark modern is best. in between zed themes, "Ayu Dark" is best. it's not even the default. it would leave bad impression on newcomers.

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feature: for minimap like vscode "editor.minimap.renderCharacters": false

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doing ctrl+c doesn't do copy in terminal on WindowsOS (pwsh). this is Windows OS, not linux, so make it function like it!

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extensions page feel unresponsive (no ui feedback) when searching for something. it feels buggy.

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using ctrl-` i can't close the terminal. in windows, the first time you do it, it opens the terminal if it's not open. when it's open but not fucused, using the shortcut focuses on it. after that using it one more time, closes it.

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there is no shortcut to add a line above a line, like in vscode doing ctrl-shift-enter.

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ctrl-shift-e works, but it doesn't work when i do ctrl-shift-g and then ctrl-shift-e. doing doing ctrl-shift-g opens git panel and focus goes to "Enter commit message" input.

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Make Key Context View content selectable. So that I can copy paste. Writing it is hard because if you change focus you lose the content.

• related

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I don't like that I need to add this much of options just to change the font and features:

{
    "buffer_font_family": "JetBrains Mono",
    "ui_font_family": "JetBrains Mono",
    "terminal": { "font_features": { "calt": true } },
    "buffer_font_features": { "calt": true },
    "ui_font_features": { "calt": true }
}

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in explorer panel, when a folder is opened in the workspace, the folder that is opened in the workspace, is visible as a folder and can be toggled and collapsed. i don't like this. vscode does it differently.

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In explorer, right-clicking on a folder, does now have the option "Open Folder in Currennt Workspace" and "Open Folder in New Workspace"

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Why the fuck eslint language service works for a project that doesn't use eslint! and it fails. lol.

Language server eslint:

initializing server eslint, id 4
-- stderr--
node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1222
  throw err;
  ^

Error: Cannot find module 'C:\Users\Babak\AppData\Local\Zed\languages\eslint\vscode-eslint-2.4.4\vscode-eslint\server\out\eslintServer.js'
    at Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1219:15)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1045:27)
    at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:315:14)
    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:215:24)
    at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:158:5)
    at node:internal/main/run_main_module:30:49 {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: []
}

Node.js v22.5.1

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// is single line comment. don't auto complite (adding // on enter to next line). add it behind a setting option.

update: this fixes it. but it still should be behind an option. it seems like zed wants to be easy for vscode users. so doing this would help.

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When I open the terminal for the first time, the whole app freezes for a little, and becomes completely unusable!!!

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make vscode themes to just work with Zed!!!

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there should be more spacce from start and end of the group button:

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how can i do this (from vscode) in zed?
"workbench.sideBar.location": "right"
i found some options that it makes it possible to move some specific panels to the right side, i changed a bunch o options for bunch of sidebars but doing ctrl-b was still opening some panel on the right side. i just want it to be like vscode.

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In Windows, "File Manager" is called "File Explorer". So, things like this may be better to match the OS.

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things that are shown in ctrl+shift+p are not sorted based on resent usage like vscode.

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i searched the font, found and select, press enter, the issue is the dropdown doesn't get closed. it's stuck. i need to click outside to close it.

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no proper spacing here.

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here, i press enter, and it opens a new instanse, this is not how vscode does it. it opens it in current instanse.

doing ctrl+space does that in vscode, but it does nothing on zed. it seems like the whole popup things doesn't work

[injust]

if we have two moves in the edit history, and we are currently at the first history, by doing ctrl-shift-z we can move to the second (next) history and by doing ctrl-z we can be to the first (previous) history. if we are on the first history and do ctrl-s (no matter file is already saved or not), then we will loose all of the next histories and doing ctrl-shift-z won't work.

This is probably #31917.

[injust]

i have 400 lines of vscode settings. i don't want to do this migration manually. just make it work. auto migration. 1 to 1 mapping.

also i have custom keymappings (key bindings, shortcuts, shortkeys).

Try the "zed: import vs code settings" command.

[injust]

Make Key Context View content selectable. So that I can copy paste. Writing it is hard because if you change focus you lose the content.

#23888

[injust]

// is single line comment. don't auto complite (adding // on enter to next line). add it behind a setting option.

You probably want the extend_comment_on_newline setting.

[Askath]

Auto Compilation for settings works fine for me. Both for settings and keymaps.

[JonGretar]

I don't really get why Zed would add AI features, instead of just making the editor to just work. I don't like this. I don't care about it. And most of the people don't. I like things that I like to be added and fixed, instead of some crap that I don't care about. And I don't care why Zed team works on AI things. So, don't come at me with some explanation.

That's a bit self centered really. I don't use AI much but like half the feature requests and conversations seem to be AI related. So it seems like your assumption about "most of the people" is simply incorrect. AI is big. We need to get over it.

[babakfp]

Thank you for your comment.

This is not something against AI. I use AI all the time.

A lot of AI issues does not mean a lot of interest in this.

What I mean is, Zed should be the best fist, as a editor without the AI stuff, without this and that. Zed is trying to fight and win in many battles. Is it going to win all, win nothing, or be a mid solution for every problem.

AI is a hot topic, with crazy compitision.

When people look for an alternative code editor, they just want what they have, but better. Meaning I want vsCode but better, no bugs and issues, and features that I need and are missing for years, and issues that are not fixed for years.

Right now vsCode TS language features don't work at all! Meaning I'm not able to code. Meaning this is a great opportunity for Zed, but I'm not using Zed because it's vsCode, in some places better, but in some other crappy. So I don't even want to use it! I hope that already tells a lot.

In my opinion, Zed team could just clone vsCode, keep it up to date and compatible with vsCode, and on the other side, work on the bugs, performance issues, and features.

There are AI solutions that have taken vsCode, and added their AI into it. This means vsCode (what people like) + better. So people will choose this over Zed and its AI stuff.

Anyways, this is my opinion, not a debate.

[lukejans]

Zed is still in Beta...

[babakfp]

Zed is still in Beta...

Yes, yes, of course.

My notes may sound harsh, and like that I don't know that Zed is not ready for Windows. I know it's not ready. These are just notes. Things in my mind while testing and stuff...

[lukejans]

I don't blame you for saying a lot of what you're saying... it just sounds harsh and some are very opinionated/subjective. I understand a lot of your issues though. Perhaps upvote this (#31604)[https://github.com//discussions/31604] so we can get comments working properly lol.