

Antonio Scandurra - Atom, Zed and the Future of Text Editors
29 snips Mar 24, 2025
Antonio Scandurra, co-founder of Zed and former core contributor to Atom, shares his journey through text editor development. He highlights the evolution from Atom to the Rust-based Zed, emphasizing its performance and collaborative features. The conversation dives into Zed's innovative data structures, like the sum tree, and the significance of a custom UI framework. Scandurra also discusses integrating AI into text editors while maintaining simplicity, envisioning a future where collaboration and intelligent features redefine coding experiences.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Atom Contributions
- Antonio Scandurra's first interaction with open source was contributing to Atom.
- He improved split selections, paired with Nathan Sobo, and eventually joined GitHub.
Atom's Extensibility Challenges
- Extensibility in Atom was a double-edged sword.
- While it fostered a thriving plugin ecosystem, it made API changes and performance management difficult.
Performance Focus in Zed
- Performance issues in Atom stemmed from Chromium's deep abstractions, limiting control over startup and rendering.
- Zed prioritizes performance by using Rust and controlling the entire rendering pipeline.