Code editors

A code editor keeps files in memory, highlights and edits them, and leans on helpers for knowledge about each language: language servers over LSP for completion, diagnostics and navigation, and debug adapters over DAP for breakpoints and stepping. Extensions add languages, themes and tools, and remote development runs those helpers on another machine while the UI stays local.

The field splits three ways. Visual Studio Code is the default: 70.9% of the 13,193 people who answered the Stack Overflow 2026 survey question used it regularly. Cursor and Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) are forks of its open-source base with agents built in. Zed is written from scratch in Rust, draws on the GPU and hosts outside agents through the Agent Client Protocol.

Pick by ecosystem first. A VS Code fork keeps most extensions but installs them from Open VSX rather than Microsoft’s Marketplace, and loses Microsoft-only pieces such as Remote - SSH. An editor written from scratch, such as Zed, gets languages and debuggers through LSP and DAP, but needs its own extensions for everything else.