New text editor: Atom

[phkb]

I've been trialing a text editor I recently stumbled upon, called Atom (https://atom.io/), which I'm finding handles plist files (OpenStep format) really sweetly. No more missing commas or semi-colons - right out of the box those issues are highlighted. It also handles Javascript and Objective-C natively. It seems to have really good support, it's cross-platform (Win, Linux, and Mac), with lots of extensions and themes. And Git support is built in.

And it's open source.

Has anyone seen this editor before, and had any good/bad/indifferent experiences with it?

[MCO]

i heard of it some time ago. it seems to be a "secret tip" in the linux [coding] community. kinda like intelliJ for coding itself.

[phkb]

I have to admit I've now uninstalled it and have plumped for Microsoft's version of the same thing, called "Visual Studio Code", mainly because Atom was just too slow on my rig. However, even with the better speed from VS Code, I find I still like to have Notepad++ around if I need to quickly change a text file.

[spara]

Thanks for bumping this. I tested it with my earlier machine and it was a tad sluggish and I ditched it in favor of my long time favorite, Geany. Now with my shining new and more powerful rig, it's just sweet. An excellent editor with tweakability to the core. And it does plists too! I heartily recommend to test this one.

[UK_Eliter]

I heard Atom presented as a freeware clone of the Sublime Text editor. I like Sublime text (I use it on Windows and Linux) though I haven't - at least recently - tried it on plist files. I did try Atom (on Linux I think) and found it bad (too slow? I can't remember). Still, that was ages ago and the program is under development.

[pleiadian]

Atom is my favorite text and code-editor, as it lets you install some mandatory plugins, such as Minimap, Symbol Outline, and remote FTP editing. So far I found it to be quite the satisfactory alternative to Sublime. Plus, it's free, hackable, and based on Node.js.

[clod]

My favorite code editor is Codelobster
It works like light-weight IDE.

[phkb]

Nice tip, clod! And welcome to the boards.

[gsagostinho]

For me, Atom is a joy to use as I don't see any performance issues.

[UK_Eliter]

If someone likes the feel of Atom but finds the performance bad, that person has reason to try Sublime Text (which, as I said above, is the inspiration for Atom).

Sublime does require text-based configuration - if one wants to tweak it - and it does cost some £60, but (1) one can try it as long as one likes before paying, (2) the license is lifetime and for as many computers as you like (and with whatever operating systems), (3) the editor is fast, functional (for one thing, many 'linters' are available for it), very customizable and gets out of one's way. I like it and use it on Windows and on Linux.

[Happyman]

Atom is actually not a new scripting tool, I tried it a bit when it came out in 2014. Overall, it was smooth and I like its customized editor style, which I found useful.