Comment by libraryofbabel
18 hours ago
Some excellent points. On “add selection to chat”, I just want to add that the Claude Code VS code extension automatically passes the current selection to the model. :)
I am genuinely curious if any Cursor or Windsurf users who have also tried Claude Code could speak to why they prefer the IDE-fork tools? I’ve only ever used Claude Code myself - what am I missing?
I like using Claude Code through Roo Code (vscode extension). I find it easier to work with text using a mouse, vscode diff viewer etc. I guess if you're very good at vim shortcuts etc you can use that in Claude Code instead of selecting text with a mouse. Claude Code has a vscode extension too so I feel that using Claude Code through vscode just adds a better UI.
Cursor's tab completion model is legitimately fantastic and for many people is worth the entire $20 subscription. Lint fixes or syntax-level refactors are guessed and executed instantly with TAB with close to 100% accuracy. This is their final moat IMO, if Copilot manages to bring their tab completion up to near parity, very little reason to use Cursor.
Idk. When you're doing something it really gets it's super nice, but it's also off a lot of times and it's IMO super distracting when it constantly pop up. No way to explicitly request it instead - other than toggling, which seems to also turn off context/edit tracking, because after toggling on it does not suggest anything until you make some edits.
While Zed's model is not as good the UI is so much better IMO.
Just to offer a different perspective, I use Cursor at work and, coming from emacs (which I still use) with copilot completions only when I request them with a shortcut, Cursor’s behavior drives me crazy.
Which Emacs Package do you use for CoPilot, i tried using Copilot.el a long while ago, but had problems with it. Is there something new or does copilot.el fulfill your needs?
I haven't used Cursor or Claude much, how different is it from Copilot? I bounce between desktop ChatGPT (which can update VS Code) and copilot. Is there an impression that those have fallen behind?
Github Copilot just added that about a week ago.
<https://forum.cursor.com/t/i-made-59-699-lines-of-agent-edit...>
It's quite interesting how little the Cursor power users use tab. Majority of the posts are some insane number of agent edits and close to (or exactly) 0 tabs.
I use cursor strictly for agent edits and do anything else in a proper IDE meaning in a Jetbrains product that I run in a separate window.
Many of my co-workers do the same. VC Code is vastly inferior when it comes to editing and actual IDE feature so it is a non-starter when you do programming yourself.
I once tried AI tab-complete on Zed and it was all right but breaks my flow. Either the AI does the editing or I do it but mixing both annoys me.
I find tab extremely distracting and it was the first thing I turned off. I have no idea how people can tolerate it.
At my company we have an enterprise subscription and we're also all allowed to see the analytics for the entire company. Last I checked, I was literally the number one user of Tab and middle of the pack for agent.
It's interesting when I see videos or reddit posts about cursor and people getting rate limited and being super angry. In my experience tab is the number one feature, and I feel like most people using agent are probably overusing it tasks that would honestly take less time to do myself or using models way smarter than they need to be for the task at hand.
I'd like to ask the opposite question: why do people prefer command line tools? I tried both and I prefer working in IDE. The main reason is that I don't trust the LLMs too much and I like to see and potentially quickly edit the changes they make. With an IDE, I can iterate much faster than with the command line tool.
I haven't tried Claude Code VS Code extension. Did anyone replaced Cursor with this setup?
I replaced. My opinion: Cursor sucks as an IDE. Cursor may have a average to above average quality in IDE assistance - but the IDE seems to get in the way. It's entire performance is based on the real-time performance and latency from their servers and sometimes it is way too slow. The TAB autocomplete that was working for you in the last 30 minutes suddenly doesn't work randomly, or just experiences severe delays that it stops making sense.
Besides that, the IDE seems poorly designed - some navigation options are confusing and it makes way too many intrusive changes (ex: automatically finishing strings).
I've since gone back to VS Code - with Cline (with OpenRouter and super cheap Qwen Coder models, Windsurf FREE, Claude Code with $20 per month) and I get great mileage from all of them.
You're looking at (coloured) diffs in your shell is all when it comes to coding. It's pretty easy to setup MCP and have claude be the director. Like I have zen MCP running with an OpenRouter API key, and will ask claude to consult with pro (gemini) or o3, or both to come up with an architecture review / plan.
I honestly don't know how great that is, because it just reiterates what I was planning anyways, and I can't tell if it's just glazing, or it's just drawing the same general conclusions. Seriously though, it does a decent job, and you can discuss / ruminate over approaches.
I assume you can do all the same things in an editor. I'm just comfortable with a shell is all, and as a hardcore Vi user, I don't really want to use Visual Studio.
I also use vim heavily and I've found that I'm really enjoying Cursor + VS Code Vim extension. The cursor tab completion works very nicely in conjunction with vim navigate mode.
JetBrains has CC integration where CC runs in a terminal window but uses the IDE (i.e., Pycharm) for diffing. Works well.
I can roll back to different checkpoints with Cursor easily. Maybe CC has it but the fact that I haven’t found it after using it daily is an example of Cursor having a better UX for me.
Or Cursor just gave him a better deal?
It already does this btw, when you use Cc from the vscode terminal and select things it adds it to cc context automatically
As does Copilot