
Atom.io: Multi-Folder Projects - fniephaus
http://blog.atom.io/2015/04/15/multi-folder-projects.html
======
MaikuMori
I've used Atom for quite a while now (mostly for Go projects). Go-plus plugin
is just awesome. I've also taken up development of [sourcegraph-atom][1]
plugin.

For most day to day coding file size limits and slowness which comes from big
files is not relevant. If your source files are huge you probably want to
split them up more. If you have to work with big files Atom is not for you,
but so are most editors. For data extraction and transformation I rather use
CLI.

Where I've noticed slowdown the most is when you open up many files, I think
things could be improved there, but again typically you don't need 20 files
open in editor at the same time.

Multiple projects is a nice feature, but I'm already used to opening multiple
windows if I do need to have multiple folders open. I'm sure the community
will come up with some nice uses/plugins for it.

I think one of the biggest pluses for Atom is the active community and plugins
and they're invested to keep it going and improve.

[1]: [https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph-
atom](https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph-atom)

~~~
seanwilson
Yeah, I wish people would stop dismissing all the effort the Atom contributors
are making by bringing up the 2MB file limit all the time. I've not seen a 2MB
source code file (thankfully!) in a long time so it doesn't impact me. If I
need to edit or search through a >2MB e.g. log or CSV file, I usually do that
from the terminal anyways. The file size limit is a bit weird I'll admit but
not a showstopper for me.

~~~
bdcravens
Their full screen bugs on OSX (possibly just when using multiple monitors) are
what keep driving me back to Sublime. Large files can usually be accessed
elsewhere; the inability to switch windows when you have unsaved worked over
there is lost time/money.

~~~
JoelHobson
It might just be multiple monitor related. I use Atom on OSX Mavericks daily,
and haven't noticed any issues. Only one monitor though.

~~~
bdcravens
Are you accessing multiple full screen windows and swiping between them? I
think that's where the bug is.

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matt2000
Are people using Atom as their main editor now? i.e. have successfully made
the switch from sublime? Just wondering how it holds up under daily use.

~~~
NathanKP
I've tried making the switch last week but Atom is still missing some very
essential basics for me, such as the ability to quit the app, reopen it, and
have it automatically restore the same views, layout, files, and cursor
location it had when it closed. I tried a couple add-ons that claimed to add
this feature of Sublime Text to Atom but I just got a lot of plugin errors and
they didn't actually work.

I also miss some basic things like the ability in Sublime Text to start up in
fullscreen automatically (not a maximized window, but true distraction free
fullscreen with no system UI or menubar visible).

Additionally for some reason the fuzzy search is extremely slow and seems to
reindex from scratch regularly, blocking me for about 10 seconds every single
time I restart the app, compared with Sublime Text where I have never had to
wait on a blocking indexing operation to use the fuzzy search.

I think Atom will be great some day but it still isn't there for me yet.

~~~
asantos3
The issues on your first paragraph:

* [https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1603#issuecomment-935991...](https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1603#issuecomment-93599126)

* [https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/6396](https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/6396)

~~~
NathanKP
Awesome! Looks like I'll be giving Atom another try soon.

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bstar77
This question is completely off topic, but I'm hoping someone might have an
answer as google searches have been fruitless for me.

Why doesn't Atom support :w to save when in vim-mode? Is there any way to
toggle this on? I can't remove 10 years of muscle memory and start using
[cmd]s.

I've been looking at alternatives to macvim and this is so far the most
promising for me, but I may need to wait for full neovim integration to get me
to completely switch.

~~~
lloeki
Shameless plug, as I scratched that itch: [https://atom.io/packages/ex-
mode](https://atom.io/packages/ex-mode)

Does much more than `:w` now, but contributions are very welcome.

~~~
podgib
Argh this has been annoying me for so long. You sir are a godsend

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Touche
Judging by the commit logs I'm guessing there is at least 1 or 2 people
working on Atom full-time. I'm surprised a company of GitHub's size can pull
off what is essentially a skunk works project with no revenue potential and
have people working on it full or near-full time and the investors are ok with
that.

~~~
dragonwriter
> I'm surprised a company of GitHub's size can pull off what is essentially a
> skunk works project with no revenue potential

Since when do extensible editors around which IDEs can be built have no
revenue potential?

And that's before even considering synergies that an editor integrating
workflows for other GitHub services might have.

~~~
bdcravens
GitHub originally was going to charge for it, and then announced it would be
free. Pretty sure they're locked into that decision or else it'll be bad PR.

~~~
dragonwriter
A free (even open-source) extensible editor that is also the foundation on
which commercial IDEs are built (or for which there are first-party commercial
extensions) isn't exactly an unheard-of business model.

~~~
bdcravens
Sure, see JetBrains and all their Eclipse-based IDEs. Facebook has already
come out with an Atom-based IDE, and it won't be the last. I'm not sure that
Github will be the one releasing a commercial one though. However, I think a
base open source project with a upgraded commercial fine is fine (see Sidekiq)

------
whizzkid
Working with multifolders is a little bit tricky. As soon as you open 5+
files, sidebar gets really long that it is hard to go back and forth.

Sublime has this plugin called SyncedSideBar which is kind of ok but gets too
jumpy even when i preview a file.

I hope they consider this while developing the feature.

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ch4s3
I really like this feature. I'm currently pulling some functionality out of
one app and into a separate gem. This allows me to cmd+p and find the files I
want in either project. It also saves a ton of memory by not opening a second
atom window.

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piratebroadcast
My coworker uses Atom strictly because he can find-and-replace and scope it by
directory. Seems he cant do that in Sublime.

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rglover
Does anybody know what theme is used in the screenshot?

~~~
maxbrunsfeld
That screenshot uses the new default UI and syntax themes. Both are called
`One Dark`. I think the UI theme is quite amazing; it adapts to complement
whatever syntax theme you're using. See simurai's blog post:
[http://blog.atom.io/2015/02/18/one-
themes.html](http://blog.atom.io/2015/02/18/one-themes.html).

~~~
rglover
Thanks!

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sigzero
Still an issue opening a large (> 2MB) file?

~~~
mrbogle
A fix is currently in progress: [https://github.com/atom/text-
document](https://github.com/atom/text-document)

