Emacs, Neovim, VS Code or Cursor: what editors programmers choose now
Guido van Rossum compares Emacs, PyCharm and VS Code, ThePrimeagen champions Neovim, the Cursor founders rebuild the editor around AI and George Hotz gives his view of AI coding tools. Their choices show what programmers want from an editor as models start writing more of the code.
Which editor wins, according to these four conversations? Show answer
None. Each programmer picks the editor that removes what slows that particular programmer down.
Why did Guido van Rossum move from Emacs to VS Code? Show answer
It shares what he valued in Emacs: a small core engine with packages that can extend nearly everything.
How does van Rossum judge GitHub Copilot? Show answer
Its suggestions are usually slightly wrong but save a lot of typing, handling the boring parts.
What is ThePrimeagen's main argument about editors? Show answer
If you will spend 50,000 hours programming, you should know your editor deeply, whatever it is.
What happened when ThePrimeagen relied on Copilot? Show answer
He introduced more bugs over time, because reviewing generated code is a different skill from writing it.
What is ThePrimeagen's biggest worry about AI coding tools? Show answer
Learned helplessness, with juniors offloading everything and never developing skill.
Why did the Cursor founders fork VS Code instead of writing a plugin? Show answer
They believe AI will change how software is built, and a plugin would limit their control.
What limits do the Cursor founders admit? Show answer
Agents are not yet very useful for most tasks, models are bad at finding bugs, and review is a growing burden.
Why does George Hotz not want AI code completion? Show answer
He says he spends 95 percent of his time debugging, so close-to-correct code is the last thing he wants.
What kind of AI help does Hotz want? Show answer
A very intelligent pair programmer that reads his code and tells him where the bugs are.
What explains the split over slightly wrong code? Show answer
What each person finds scarce. If typing is the cost, a near-miss helps. If attention is, it is a liability.
What should you work out before choosing an editor? Show answer
Your bottleneck: whether you lose more time to typing, navigating a large codebase or debugging.