There’s a new IDE out called Cursor. Although as I said before:

Or perhaps ‘IDE’ is not the correct term. [Cursor] is part of a new line of developer environments that are much faster because they are modular. They consist of a text editor portion and a ‘language server’ portion. The language server is like a server meaning it runs asynchronously. It does not block the text editor so the text editor can run lightning quick. So perhaps these should be called ‘modular development environments’ or MDEs.

Or perhaps not that new. The IDE itself is just a fork of Visual Studio Code, the OG Modular Development Environment. And, in fact, Cursor doesn’t add much, if at all, to VS Code. The only notable feature it adds is AI. Also when researching this post Google told me this:

No, Cursor is not just Visual Studio Code (VS Code) plus AI, but rather a standalone fork of VS Code that’s built around AI:

Sounds like VS Code + AI to me. It’s even compatible with VS Code extensions. Which brings me to my core question: Why is Cursor its own program? Why not just make it a VS Code extension? I mean, GitHub Copilot does it.