
Atom Editor or Sublime Text – which one to pick? - Natura
http://www.atomtips.com/atom-editor-vs-sublime-text/
======
notum
You have to understand that Atom is repurposed webkit, with all the flaws and
benefits that come with a browser engine.

I liked it, the dealbreaker (to say the least) for me was broken support for
non-US keyboard layouts, it can't differentiate alt from alt-gr making it
impossible for me to type most brackets and pipe.

This has been an open issue for months, with a couple of community contributed
"solutions" that don't quite cut it. Considering they are pretty much ignoring
the problem I won't be checking out Atom again soon.

~~~
adnam
I just downloaded the latest version (on ubuntu 14.04 with Atom 0.177.0) and
was able to type "|" and "@" and "\" no without problems on a Spanish-layout
keyboard.

Edit: in latest release notes it says "Atom now runs on top of Chrome 40 and
io.js".

------
matthewmacleod
I wouldn't really consider the site 'atomtips.com' to be an unbiased source on
this issue!

All you need to know is that you can easily use both for free and decide if
you like both, either, or neither. So basically, pick whatever one (or none of
them!) that you prefer after using it for a bit.

Atom has the upside of being open-source, and being easier for people familiar
with the web stack to modify. Sublime has the benefit of being much faster.
You'll be able to achieve roughly the same with both, and it'll come down to
individual use cases and preferences.

(Although I will say that I don't consider the replacement of a lovely JSON-
formatted settings file with a GUI to be a benefit at all!)

------
Draiken
I don't think you should rely on other's opinions when picking an editor. Just
try each one (really try) for a week or two and decide after that.

Everyone uses editors differently (hence the big vim/emacs/etc flame war) and
it is where you'll spend time coding. A lot of time. I don't think reading
someone else's opinion really helps.

When I chose my editor everyone was crazy about TextMate. I tried it out and
didn't like it. I was completely afraid of Vim (and all of the jokes about how
hard it was) and after I tried it I couldn't stop using it. It's a very
personal choice.

Just try them out!

Edit: typo

~~~
spain
So much this, and it applies to things other than editors too. I used to
constantly look for people's opinions on all kinds of software to decide which
one was best for me due to a belief that if I used something that I _didn 't_
end up liking then that time would have been wasted. I've now mostly reversed
that habit because trying something out for yourself is the only way you'll
know if _you_ will like it, and the time invested isn't a waste so long as you
come out with a better idea of what you prefer.

------
SatyajitSarangi
I've used both for a considerable amount of time and these are my unbiased
thoughts about it. 1\. I don't think Atom is more of a web-editor. Think of
dreamweaver, but completely stripped down, and dare I say, faster. I used to
it write few of my NodeJs apps and was quite happy with it. But, compared to
Submile, it is incredibly slow.

2\. Also, I'm not sure how others work, but I'm more of a one editor for
everything person. Atom is not that editor. Vim, Emacs and to an extent,
because of being native and having huge number of plugins, Sublime is quite
one-ring-to-rule-them-all editor. I feel that Atom won't ever be that, nor
does it want to be that.

3\. Time spent in learning the shortcuts of both these editors are negligent
and both provide enough ways to tailor it to your needs. But I feel that Atom
has better project management capabilities than Sublime. Github is a major
help here.

That's about it. I'm a Sublime fan, and just don't feel to need to switch
anything. I would rather spend that time building something fun than invest
myself in learning another editor.

------
HelloNurse
"Atom 1.0 should greatly improve the performance, so let’s judge it after
that."

Oh yes. As fair and balanced as a guide from an Atom fanboy can be. The sort
of article that deserves to be linked two or three times.

~~~
TomorrowRich
Indeed, it seems like wishful thinking that Atom will magically become
quicker. One presumes that the easy optimisations have already been made. What
else can be done, other than a complete rewrite using a different technology
stack?

------
millstone
Atom just feels weird and broken. Make a new document - why is Edit -> Undo
enabled when there's nothing to Undo? Press Command-Z - why doesn't the
menubar flash to indicate that I typed a key equivalent? Control-click on an
item in the tree view on the right - why does it only highlight after the menu
is dismissed? Make the window bigger - why is there a flicker, as the content
repaints after the window resizes?

Atom exists in an uncanny valley, and re-introduces tons of problems that the
design of OS X has worked hard to avoid. I hope Atom doesn't succeed for that
reason: it's a big regression in UI.

------
zirkonit
Atom has an ambitious concept and is generally engineered well, but the
performance is crippling it so far. I'm not sure whether it's possible in the
current web-to-native implementation to actually reach native performance,
especially for large files, but so far it's just not ready for the primetime.

------
sveme
The biggest issue for me is startup speed. Atom simply takes too long for me.
I'm often quickly having a look at large numerical csv files and Atom startup
times plus csv load times are always large enough to immediately switch back
to sublime. Still want to like Atom though.

~~~
mercer
I've settled on using Atom for my longer-term work, where I can just leave it
open and am not too bothered by sluggishness here or there.

Then I use Sublime Text for big files, quick edits, and the occasional stuff
that Atom can't do yet.

But after avoiding Atom initially, trying it again about a week a go was a
nice surprise. It has almost any plugin that I used Sublime Text for, and a
bunch more. It's good enough for me, and I'm pretty picky.

~~~
pilif
I don't know. If it's a big enough edit to warrant waiting for start up time,
then why not just use an appropriate IDE which also has lots of additional
convenience features in addition to just being an editor.

Atom takes about the same amount of time to start up as RubyMine but it only
provides a fraction of the functionality.

The one thing a pure editor has over an IDE is start up time and Atom is not
even having that.

~~~
mercer
> The one thing a pure editor has over an IDE is start up time and Atom is not
> even having that.

Well, Atom does start significantly faster than WebStorm (and it's siblings).
On top of that, actually using Atom is much less sluggish than WebStorm or
other full-blown IDE's. This is on a MacBook Air though, with tons of apps and
at least two browsers open.

That said, I'd probably use an IDE if I do more complex work. For my current
web-development needs Atom is fine, and since I mostly work within one
project, the startup time is not an issue.

Furthermore, since most of the keyboard shortcuts and interface is similar to
Sublime, it's not a big deal to open ST every once in a while for bigger
files.

The main reason I'm switching to Atom for now, though, is that I feel it has a
stronger future than ST, and I might finally scratch some of my own itches by
writing plugins. That's harder for me to do for ST.

------
alkonaut
Those of you who use Sublime or Atom exclusively for (code) work, does that
mean you don't use an IDE?

There seems to be devs coming from at least three camps: the ones that came
from the emacs/vi side that never really took to IDEs, those that once used
(say) Eclipse and were burned by IDEs and now like the less-is-more of
editors, and those that started developing in IDE's and can't imagine NOT
having an integrated debugger and so on (Yes I know several text editors can
be set up to have most IDE features, but for the sake of argument lets count
IDEs as those that were built from the ground up as full IDEs).

Not sure what divides devs this way but the 2 main reasons should be platform:
if you are used to linux of course you have huge benefits of having a console
based editor, perhaps so much that you can forego a lot of the bells and
whistles of a desktop based one, especially of you don't use graphical
designers UI elements and such. The second reason I can think of would be
language: If you are work on niche languages you are likely to find editor
support in text editors, but not likely a good IDE. Likewise if you work in
dynamic/weakly typed languages, the benefits of refactorings and navigation
are much smaller than they are in a static/strongly typed langues.

So I'm curious: if you aren't a Haskell or js developer, are you using a non-
IDE as your "main" editor? If so, why?

For me personally I want a full IDE for my dev work and can't imagine coding
without full project support, integrated debugger, refactorings and so on, and
I can't be bothered with configuring editor plugins for basic things such as
auto-indentation, auto-complete or syntax highlighting, and I haven't seen any
really good dev environents based on editors in neither Sublime, vi or emacs.
I do use editors for viewing random files/logs, editing resources, making
documentation and so on, but not as my main dev tool. As such, the
requirements are very different from an editor that is a main dev environment
from 8 to 5.

~~~
NateDad
To me, an IDE basically just means "an editor with a built-in debugger". I
really don't know where else you'd draw the line. However, for many languages,
there's no such thing as a built-in debugger (most interpreted languages, for
example).

I've used Visual Studio for C# and C++, and Eclipse for Java.

For Python, Javascript, Go, and editing random files, I prefer Sublime Text.
It loads and runs way faster than VS or Eclipse. Setting up plugins is usually
a one-time thing that only takes a few minutes to follow some directions off
the web. There usually zero "configuration". Just install and you're done.

My guess is that your day job is using Java, C++, or a .Net language, and
that's why you feel tied to an IDE (probably VS or Eclipse). Other languages
don't really need that much integration into an IDE (unlike others, I don't
think needing an IDE is really a bad thing, generally it means there's just a
lot of stuff you can do with the language besides writing logic).

I mainly write Go at work, and Sublime is great for that. There's not really a
Go debugger yet (there's a couple bad choices, but not ones I'd want to use on
any kind of a regular basis), and there's not really a way to write GUIs
either... so what's left is "write code, format code, run tests, run program".
The last two are purely command line, and the first two are what my editor
does.

~~~
alkonaut
> To me, an IDE basically just means "an editor with a built-in debugger"

Yes, at least an integrated project support, debugger and compiler (but could
be more, such as profiler, testing, designer). You are correct I use the large
OO langs, and I agree that IDEs are only really useful for languages with
strict types, large class libraries and large projects (so for example C++,
and the JVM and .NET languages).

> write code, format code, run tests, run program

But isn't there a frustrating number of unnecessary roundtrips involved here?
At least in go, which is strictly typed, if you misspell a type or function
name, when will you notice? Can you configure Sublime so that you at least get
compiler support (so a typo will be noticed when you make it rather than
later?). And can you make sublime help you with displaying documentation hints
or with completing statements? If you have a compiler error, how do you
navigate to where it is? Do you have to read the line number in the compiler
output and then open the offending file/tab in Sublime and navigate manually
to the line? At least for most langs in Emacs you get compiler message parsing
so you can jump straight to the problem.

Coming from the IDE world, I'd just never get off the ground with a new
language if I had to go from autocompletion and squigglies under typos, to
having to remember type names and function names in my head (yes IDEs have
basically done that to my head, I can no longer remember even the smallest bit
of language trivia).

~~~
NateDad
Sorry for the late reply. Yes, the plugin for Go for Sublime will tell you
when you type something that won't compile. It has autocomplete for functions
and types etc. It has go to definition. Some plugins will let you compile
straight from sublime, though I don't use that, generally I just use the
command line for that, I don't really find it to be a problem...

Integrated project support is not really needed for Go, at least. There's no
project file that defines what's in a project, it's just the directory layout,
and everything is embedded in the .go files themselves, so there's no need to
parse something to know what's "in" or "not in" the project.

------
kirualex
From a website called "atomtips", it seems kind of biased !

Anyway the dealbreaker for me was the very slow start of Atom (and I've got a
very good machine). When every app loads instantly, I'm not going to wait 5
seconds for each new window of Atom I launch.

------
yAnonymous
Right now, ST. Somewhere in the future, hopefully Atom.

I don't even care about the startup speed, but Atom generally doesn't feel
polished compared to ST. Starts with the terrible font rendering on Linux.

------
_ZeD_
I know it's "linux only" (not really, I'm using an old version from
windows.kde.org), but, seriously, I always found kate[0] better suited as a
"programmer editor". I recenlty at work switched to sublime, but it's inferior
to kate in almost everything (the only thing I see it handle better - and it
handle very better - is the opening of very big (>30Mb) text files)

.. [0]: [http://kate-editor.org/](http://kate-editor.org/)

~~~
dvirsky
Gedit is also very nice and has some pretty good plugins.

------
aruggirello
Both are very good editors. The choice might well depend on which source
language you're going to edit, and your average file as well as project size
(how many files?). If any of the two is large enough, you just can't use Atom
for that - it's noticeably slower, for obvious reasons. Though, I don't use a
single editor for everything. You could just go with Sublime, and switch to
Atom whenever you need some feature/plugin that you find more convenient
there.

OT: does anybody know PSPad? It has a very interesting feature set, though it
lacks more advanced things like collapsing, refactoring tools; I find it very
useful sometimes - especially its columnar editing feature.

------
myoffe
UI inspired by Sublime? It practically copied most functionality, behaviour
and UI style from Sublime. Atom wouldn't have existed without Sublime. Or at
least wouldn't be as good.

Having said that, Atom's got my bet as the text editor of the near future.

------
Fletch137
Try them both, for at least a week each - and any others you've heard of that
seem interesting to you.

Your editor is a very personal choice, and something you'll use a lot, so it's
worth putting the time in to try a few before you stick with one.

------
hkailahi
The startup speed is incredibly painful. That said, I absolutely love working
in Atom, and I use it whenever I'm doing a substantial session of coding.

For minor edits and quick referencing, I'll typically use Emacs. Then some
Jetbrains IDE for work/specific school projects. I definitely think I've found
a balance that works well for me, but the fact that I'm switching so much
makes me unsure if it is best.

------
oliwarner
Another day. Another editor comparison.

They're both good, powerful and accessible editors (alongside a pile of other
editors that people will swear on their children's lives are the best)...

However, nobody else on this planet is you. None of us shares your exact
likes, requirements and thoughts. What I like in Atom might really piss you
off. What you need from ST might not even be on my radar.

If you want to pick, try both and decide for yourself.

------
swah
Code Browser [http://tibleiz.net/code-browser/](http://tibleiz.net/code-
browser/)

------
jumpwah
Can you do a Vim vs Emacs one too, please?

~~~
Toenex
Seriously? Have you visited the internet?

~~~
jumpwah
I don't anymore, my daughter told me to use the orange mozzarella instead of
the blue e because it has more ram speed.

------
subliminalpanda
The 2mb file limit is a deal breaker for me frankly. For now, I'm sticking
with Sublime.

------
theone
One of the issue which I feel is the font rendering with these two editors.
Text on ST3 looks crisp and beautiful.

For better look see, [http://imgur.com/a/yMexQ](http://imgur.com/a/yMexQ)

------
TomorrowRich
Any serious developer will try both for at least a day, and choose the one
that makes them most productive.

For me, Atom was "death by 1000 cuts", with it's interminable sluggishness
eventually driving me insane.

------
k__
I use ST because it's faster.

But I would like to use Atom instead, because it has JavaScript plugins.

Also @ doesn't work out of the box on Atom, because "alt gr"+"q" is a hot key,
lol

------
lcnmrn
It depends on OS integration too. On Linux I’ll pick Atom, on OS X I’ll pick
Sublime Text, on Windows I’ll probably use something else.

~~~
aequitas
For OSX I would pick Textmate since it integrates better with the OSX
ecosystem in terms of behaviour, keyboard shortcuts, etc.

------
azinman2
Gee, I wonder what atomtips.com will recommend!

------
pan69
Has anyone used Brackets (brackets.io)? It seems to be similar to Atom in
architecture/approach if I'm not mistaken.

------
jsprogrammer
>Atom is free software(free as a free speech not free as a beer)

Atom is also, "free as in beer", is it not?

------
swah
I think we have to write more editors with Sublime architecture. I have no
idea how to start.

------
stared
Speed...

------
ainiriand
I would pick Atom editor, just for the free software philosophy.

~~~
chkuendig
Why not textmate then? Its been free for a while now
[https://github.com/textmate/textmate](https://github.com/textmate/textmate)

~~~
pervycreeper
Which requires a proprietary OS to run on....

------
josteink
Emacs?

------
josebaezmedina
VIM

------
uplikednldtrump
Notepad++

Next question

~~~
uplikednldtrump
Wow downvotes by the hipsters. Not surprising i guess..

~~~
sveme
No. Your previous comment is simply irelevant as a HN comment. Look at the
other comments in a similar style to yours. All downvoted as well. Editor wars
are so damn dull without any factual exchanges.

~~~
ainiriand
You are right, I had a lot of downvotes until I realized that I am not in
reddit and that comments should be made to anrich the conversation, not to
express a single word like 'notepad++' that means nothing.

------
davidw
Emacs. Next question.

------
nielpiter
Vim. Next question.

------
crncosta
OMG, another editor war! :]

------
digital-rubber
The editor imho, should not be that big of a choice. The more important thing
is, you choose one and you stick with it so that you will master it and enjoy
all the advantages there are for that editor.

I strongly doubt that there is much different (perhaps some limitations of the
app itself which are described below in other comments), that a person that
worked with atom editor for a long time and mastered it vs a sublime text user
that mastered the editor will work at a different speed.

[ edit ]

And i stick with sublime :)

