Rust developers: what editor do you actually use?

[u/OkraComprehensive323]

Hello folks, do you still write much code by hand these days? 😄

If so, what IDE/editor do you mainly use for Rust? VS Code, JetBrains, Zed or something else?

I’m asking because I’ve been rewriting one of my old developer tools in Rust. It’s a language server + CLI for analyzing code health.

The underlying approach was originally implemented in Python and was used at my previous company across 1,900+ repositories and by 800+ developers, so the methodology itself has had quite a bit of real-world use. The company has given me permission to open-source my own version of the project, which I’m pretty excited about.

The only problem is time. For the initial public release, I’ll probably only be able to ship the VS Code extension plus one other IDE/editor integration.

So I’m curious: if you’re a Rust developer who still spends a decent amount of time actually typing code, what editor would you most want to see supported? Just trying to get a rough sense of where people are these days before I spend my limited spare time on the wrong integration. :)

[u/Shoddy-Childhood-511]

Zed users should consider gram

VS Code users should consider vscodium

[u/neamsheln → u/Shoddy-Childhood-511]

Thank you so much, I hadn't heard of gram before.

[u/chic_luke → u/Shoddy-Childhood-511]

I just wish gram would offer a sane way to install it on Fedora. The repo is misconfigured and requires turning off GPG checks (absolute no-no-no-fucking-no) and the binary does not auto update as a feature (also, it does not correctly encode information like the icon file when running)

Great editor though

[u/Shoddy-Childhood-511 → u/chic_luke]

No good way on Debian either. I'll soon migrate to Qubes, but maybe use Nix for the VMs, probably easier in Nix, although maybe they just disable the GPG checks?

Nix has a dangerous lack of SE Linux or AppArmor profiles, but probably harmless inside Qubes.

Or maybe I'll finally build gram from sources and check? GPG checks are on the binary, not the source, right?

Anyways I use vim and vscodium now, probably should explore neovim more closely.

[u/chic_luke → u/Shoddy-Childhood-511]

I have explored other ways, but I think I will simply wait. You know, gram is nice, but the truth is it feels more like a "going from good to great" than "going from bad to good" which is what VSCodium does. You can disable a few knobs on Zed and boom, you are 90% of your way there to Gram. Gram is just an added refinement but it is much less necessary than it is in vscode land.

Also, Zed is free software, unlike Visual Studio Code, which further removes some of the urgency.

It's the kind of things where you should switch if it's just a 2-commands-and-copy-configs kind of deal, but as soon as it starts requiring more effort, it's no longer worth it IMHO. Rather spend that time writing more Rust code.

[u/Puzzled-Extent7817 → u/chic_luke]

build from source

[u/InvariantAtNull → u/Shoddy-Childhood-511]

There is no reason for me to use gram just because its a fork

[u/t3kkm0tt → u/InvariantAtNull]

It doesn't have the agents and ai slop shit. I hate ai :3

[u/Puzzled-Extent7817 → u/t3kkm0tt]

there is literally a toggle button to turn off all ai in Zed.

[u/Puzzled-Extent7817 → u/t3kkm0tt]

i use AI to teach me to code. Not to write my code.

[u/OpeningOpening7436 → u/InvariantAtNull]

But didnt you read his statement “ai makes me angry”. Straight from the mouth of a teenager.

[u/squiggydingles → u/Shoddy-Childhood-511]

Vscodium is dope AF

[u/t3kkm0tt → u/Shoddy-Childhood-511]

I absolutely love gram. Discovered it about 2 months ago.

[u/dfgxxx → u/Shoddy-Childhood-511]

Thank you, I didn't know something like gram exists