Yes - the Claude ACP is nice, as I like to have a view of the code while chatting. Using just the terminal for dense/long running work feels like a handicap imo. It would be great if it supported more commands though!
I feel like it doesn't support some of the commands that manage Claude itself so think `/mcp` `/plugins` etc. Most of the common ones are configured to work though from what I've seen but the ones that do more configuration of Claude seem to be blocked.
That is likely a drawback to their ACP wrapper scheme, it helps exposes IDE functionality but they have to keep up with Claude Code functionality in the other direction. VSCode's Claude code plugin is just like using the CLI.
Entirely right it's a limitation to the ACP side. They're in the middle of adding functionality where you can have terminal/CLI threads and ACP threads too. https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/pull/54729
Context usage is in an open PR now! https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/pull/54881 give it a week or two depending on if you want to use stable vs preview releases. I haven't tried pasting images yet either but I have used their context menu that lets you add images.
It works 'well' with Claude Code, but you're going to be missing a lot of features. There's no display for sub-agents/teams, no ability to clear the context without starting a whole new thread window, no ability to view the current context or usage, etc. There's also no built-in ability to view or change the model's current effort level, which I think is a current limitation with the SDK.
I tried it for a bit and it was definitely usable and I got a few features built out, but I eventually moved back to using CC in the terminal. I'm sure they're working on it, though.
Does "local Ollama" or OpenRouter count? I fell into using Zed because there was zero sign-up friction when trying to set up a connection to a local Ollama LLM. Literally "drop-down, select the model you want"
Once I got that running on my machine it was also easy (literally a drop-down+ API key) to switch and explore using models on OpenRouter.
I used to run Claude code on terminal on zed. But the memory usage would balloon eating all my ram 128gb and have to kill the session every other day. I moved back to vscode. I don’t know if they addressed it
They both work very well. My only complaint is that you can't use them to generate commit messages using the Git Panel (have to do it inside the Agent Thread instead), and /compact seems to have issues so you will often need to start a new thread (this wasn't an issue in the past so hopefully it will get fixed soon).
It lacks a lot of features, but IMO feels less "busy" than the terminal version, which I like.
Very recently Zed also gained support for parallel sessions, which is nice.
In general it's very obvious that a lot of effort goes into improving it, and it gets better with every release.
I haven’t heard this quote before, but I am copying it here because it makes so much sense:
Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have
nothing to hide is no different from saying you don't care about free
speech because you have nothing to say. - Edward Snowden
I actually set the time limit to 0 minutes , then I restarted the app in iOS and right now I do not see any shorts. Let’s see how long it would take for them to reappear again
it goes much further back than that, think it was xp
the issue is that it sucks, it's at least 10x slower than 7 zip, maybe more, showing lots of files/folders freezes the explorer gui on w10 and it only supports .zip (which could've been changed on w11, never used, never tried)
there was a German startup (Sono Sion) some years ago that had a very similar idea and had even prototypes [0], but they filed for insolvency 2-3 years ago. Now I think they pivoted to something more boring and practical - putting solar panels on vehicles. I hope aptera gets to production though
There’s also Lightyear. But so far the Zero (formerly One) ran into the ground after a barely existent production run, and the Two I’m not sure exists in any way.
It is interesting that 2 years later the same reviewer changes their mind a bit:
> Now, a few years after writing that review, I must return to say that as much as I hate this book, it's probably the best textbook that I have. I constantly return to it to reteach myself basic concepts or math. The problem with the text is that in order for it to be useful, you pretty much have to already understand the material. It's a dense, technical manual that, when paired with an easier to understand text such as Griffiths, grants tremendous power. Don't get me wrong, if there is a hell, I personally hope John David Jackson is burning in it right now, but I also have to tip my hat to him
on NXP K60 with FreeRTOS and lwIP IP based networking runs without problems with 256k Flash and 64k RAM. Of course it depends on the application, because the throughput is not high, but that is not the point here
I have thought about this myself. I do not think it is directly related to China. I think it is just not trendy to be an embedded developer. And the reason is that it is extremely difficult to start a hardware company (even more with the chip shortages in the last 2 years) because one needs to take care of delivering components that are rare or not available for months, to create the firmware for the board, to manufacture it and deliver it to the customer. Working from home office is often not possible, because soldering stations are needed, oscilloscopes, power supplies etc. The tools are also often not cheap, a debugger can cost 10-15$, but often for bigger projects the debuggers are 100x more expensive, the compiler could also cost a couple of thousand dollars. Then if there are bugs in the SW (there are always bugs) it is again difficult to update the software (this has improved in recent years with all the connected devices/cars etc., but it is still difficult). And as far as I know there are not that many hardware companies that have big exits.
On the other side, being a web developer does not require being in an office, buying expensive hardware and tools, nothing is physically delivered and at the end there is a chance to be part of a big tech exit. Big exits -> big salaries
> I do not think it is directly related to China. I think it is just not trendy to be an embedded developer
Not true at all. Pay has nothing to do with trendiness, but the other way around, being a webdev is trendy because of the high pay, great benefits like WFH and low bar to entry. Meanwhile embedded dev has a higher bar to entry due to the difficulty of the work, low relative pay and low flexibility in terms of WFH, making the jobs untrendy.
And no, the outsourcing of most HW related dev work to China has had a big impact in lowering embedded dev wages in the west, coupled with the fall of great electronics giants in the west. When I started uni to become an EE there was Nortel, Blackberry, Siemens, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Sagem, Philips, etc. developing HW and mobile devices in Europe, or the west, and were hiring like crazy. Fast forward 6 years when I finished my Master's and most of those companies have either went bust, or have become just brand names for Chinese OEMs, or have become sweatshops for far east workforce, keeping only some of their sales and senior management in the west.
The EE market in the west has went way down in the last 10-15 years in comparison to the web dev market which went way up. The only western HW company making insane profits is Apple and semi titans like ASML, Intel, Nvidia, AMD, Quallcomm, while the Japanese, Korean and Chinese companies fighting for the rest of the scraps, and most of the European ones throwing the towel completely. The commodization of HW and FW dev has meant the commodization of dev wages as well.
After graduation, some of my colleagues went into mobile app dev (the iPhone has been out for a few years but were far away from becoming the norm) and are now making several times what I do as an embedded dev at the same level of YoE. Talk about betting on the wrong horse. I still can't stop kicking myself for choosing such a poor career path and wonder if I can still switch as most companies seem reluctant to hire a thirty-someting embedded senior to do junior web dev work usually done by a teen or twenty-something out of bootcamp.
'most companies seem reluctant to hire a thirty-someting embedded senior to do junior web dev work usually done by a teen or twenty-something out of bootcamp.'
If you are based in UK, drop me a line.
If you are an embedded developer with experience, you probably understand the difference between a linked list and an array, I am interviewing 'senior' web devs and half don't.
Many 'boring' companies like corporate accounting or whatever, need developers badly and pay maybe 70-80% of what 'fashionable' ones do. It could a good place to break in.
In my opinion age is not an issue, but lack of experience in the field is. If you want to get a good compensation in a different field, you need to gain experience there. This means either developing something in your spare time, or finding a job that is willing to let you learn on the spot (probably the pay will not be that great at first).
I work at a big tech company doing web-dev. One of my coworkers is 36 and was a marketer till he joined a boot camp three years ago. I don't think age should be an issue.
reply