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Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

310 points skarat | 1 comments | 12 May 25 04:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.242s | source

Things are changing so fast with these vscode forks I m barely able to keep up. Which one are you guys using currently? How does the autocomplete etc, compare between the two?
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welder ◴[12 May 25 07:43 UTC] No.43960527[source]▶
Neither? I'm surprised nobody has said it yet. I turned off AI autocomplete, and sometimes use the chat to debug or generate simple code but only when I prompt it to. Continuous autocomplete is just annoying and slows me down.
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imiric ◴[12 May 25 08:36 UTC] No.43960839[source]▶
This is the way.

All this IDE churn makes me glad to have settled on Emacs a decade ago. I have adopted LLMs into my workflow via the excellent gptel, which stays out of my way but is there when I need it. I couldn't imagine switching to another editor because of some fancy LLM integration I have no control over. I have tried Cursor and VS Codium with extensions, and wasn't impressed. I'd rather use an "inferior" editor that's going to continue to work exactly how I want 50 years from now.

Emacs and Vim are editors for a lifetime. Very few software projects have that longevity and reliability. If a tool is instrumental to the work that you do, those features should be your highest priority. Not whether it works well with the latest tech trends.

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zkry ◴[12 May 25 09:14 UTC] No.43961064[source]▶
Ironically LLMs have made Emacs even more relevant. The model LLMs use (text) happens to match up with how Emacs represents everything (text in buffers). This opens up Emacs to becoming the agentic editor par excellence. Just imagine, some macro magic acound a defcommand and voila, the agent can do exactly what a user can. If only such a project could have the funding like Cursor does...
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1. imiric ◴[12 May 25 10:22 UTC] No.43961447[source]▶
I'm not sure why you were downvoted. You're right that buffers and everything being programmable makes Emacs an ideal choice for building an AI-first editor. Whether that's something that a typical Emacs user wants is a separate issue, but someone could certainly build a polished experience if they had the resources and motivation. Essentially every Emacs setup is someone's custom editor, and AI features are not different from any other customization.