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Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

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Re: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

#121

Post by InsideOutSanta »

welder wrote: post #75

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.

Yeah, I use IntelliJ with the chat sidebar. I don't use autocomplete, except in trivial cases where I need to write boilerplate code. Other than that, when I need help, I ask the LLM and then write the code based on its response.

I'm sure it's initially slower than vibe-coding the whole thing, but at least I end up with a maintainable code base, and I know how it works and how to extend it in the future.

Re: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

#122

Post by benterix »

For daily work - neither. They basically promote the style of work where you end up with mediocre code that you don't fully understand, and with time the situation gets worse.

I get much better result by asking specific question to a model that has huge context (Gemini) and analyzing the generated code carefully. That's the opposite of the style of work you get with Cursor or Windsurf.

Is it less efficient? If you are paid by LoCs, sure. But for me the quality and long-term maintainability are far more important. And especially the Tab autocomplete feature was driving me nuts, being wrong roughly half of the time and basically just interrupting my flow.

Re: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

#123

Post by mdrzn »

victorbjorklund wrote: post #90

I'm with Cursor for the simple reason it is in practice unlimited. Honestly the slow requests after 500 per month are fast enough. Will I stay with Cursor? No, ill switch the second something better comes along.

Same. Love the "slow but free" model, I hope they can continue providing it, I love paying only $20/m instead of having a pay by usage.

I've been building SO MANY small apps and web apps in the latest months, best $20/m ever spent.

Re: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

#124

Post by jonwinstanley »

blitzar wrote: post #118
welder wrote: post #75

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.

I shortcut the "cursor tab" and enable or disable it as needed. If only Ai was smart enough to learn when I do and don't want it (like clippy in the ms days) - when you are manually toggling it on/off clear patterns emerge (to me at least) as to when I do and don't want it.

How do you do that? Sorry if it's obvious - I've looked for this functionality before and didn't spot it

Re: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

#126

Post by aquariusDue »

submeta wrote: post #72
danpalmer wrote: post #9

Zed. They've upped their game in the AI integration and so far it's the best one I've seen (external from work). Cursor and VSCode+Copilot always felt slow and janky, Zed is much less janky feels like pretty mature software, and I can just plug in my Gemini API key and use that for free/cheap instead of paying for the editor's own integration.

Consumes lots of resources on an M4 Macbook. Would love to test it though. If it didn’t freeze my Macbook. Edit: With the latest update to 0.185.15 it works perfectly smooth. Excellent addition to my setup.

In my case this was the culprit: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/13190 otherwise it worked great mostly.

Re: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

#127

Post by jonwinstanley »

admiralrohan wrote: post #119
welder wrote: post #75

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.

That is interesting. Which tech are you using? Are you getting irrelevant suggestions as those autocompletes are meant to predict the things you are about to type.

Agreed, I've found for JS the suggestions are remarkably good

Re: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

#128

Post by jonwinstanley »

Daedren wrote: post #125

Considering Microsoft is closing down on the ecosystem, I'd pick VSCode with Copilot over those two. It's a matter of time before they're shuttered or their experience gets far worse.

Unlikely they'll disappear. I currently use Cursor but am happy to change if a competitor is markedly better

Re: Ask HN: Cursor or Windsurf?

#129

Post by blitzar »

jonwinstanley wrote: post #124
blitzar wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shortcut the "cursor tab" and enable or disable it as needed. If only Ai was smart enough to learn when I do and don't want it (like clippy in the ms days) - when you are manually toggling it on/off clear patterns emerge (to me at least) as to when I do and don't want it.

How do you do that? Sorry if it's obvious - I've looked for this functionality before and didn't spot it

Bottom right says "cursor tab" you can manually manipulate it there (and snooze for X minutes - interesting feature). For binding shortcuts - Command/Ctrl + Shift + P, then look for "Enable|Disable|Whatever Cursor Tab" and set shortcuts there.

Old fashioned variable name / function name auto complete is not affected.

I considered a small macropad to enable / disable with a status light - but honestly don't do enough work to justify avoiding work by finding / building / configuring / rebuilding such a solution. If the future is this sort of extreme autocomplete in everything I do on a computer, I would probably go to the effort.

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