Nathan Sobo

Nathan Sobo, known for creating the Atom editor at GitHub, dives into his latest venture: Zed, a high-performance multiplayer code editor. He details the evolution from Atom to Zed, highlighting significant lessons learned and the challenges faced. The discussion emphasizes speed, collaboration, and a user-centric focus. Sobo also explores how Zed aims to revolutionize coding through innovation and community engagement, drawing parallels to gaming culture in collaborative development.

Nathan Sobo, co-founder of Zed and a former contributor to Atom and Electron, shares his journey in crafting a revolutionary code editor. He delves into the challenges of collaborative editing and the role of CRDTs, revealing how unique identifiers are essential for effective data structures. Discussions also touch on the innovative GPUI framework for enhanced GPU performance, and the impact of AI on coding practices. Sobo sheds light on balancing traditional development methods with AI capabilities, aiming to transform the developer experience.

Nathan Sobo, a renowned software engineer and creator of the Zed text editor, shares insights into its evolution into an open-source platform. He discusses Zed’s unique collaborative channels that enhance coding experiences in real-time. The conversation dives into balancing community feedback with business goals, especially concerning Linux support and extensibility through Z extensions. They also explore the complexities of open-source licensing, emphasizing the need for user engagement and continuous improvement. Humor and anecdotes keep the discussion lively!

Nathan Sobo talks about building Zed, a text editor in Rust, focusing on UI design, performance optimization, and collaboration features. He discusses challenges in editor development, using Rust for Zed, high frame rate rendering, WebAssembly, and testing concurrent networking code. The podcast explores innovative features like TreeSitter, Language Server Protocol, and future visions for Zed, including open-sourcing components and CRDB integration.

Nathan Sobo, early developer on Atom, discusses transitioning from Electron to native UIs with the Zed team. They explore editor evolution, programming languages, frustration leading to innovation, Rust learning curve, building native apps in Rust, and challenges in distributed systems and WebAssembly extension development.