
Atom 1.36 - beardicus
https://blog.atom.io/2019/04/09/atom-1-36.html
======
taylorlapeyre
Prediction: If VS Code is the general do-it-all editor, Atom will become the
GitHub editor. Atom is quickly ramping up feature integration with GitHub —
seen here with integrating review comments inline with the code and the deep
GitHub PR integration in general.

GitHub and Atom have a very linked future, with GitHub planning to become more
involved with the actual code-writing process. Atom will be the conduit though
which they achieve that.

~~~
GordonS
VS Code has had excellent git integration for a long time, as well as GitHub-
specific integrations through an extension.

Atom may have started the move towards lightweight (relatively) IDEs, but VS
Code is undoubtedly the more popular one. Honestly, when I saw this post on HN
I was quite surprised to see that Atom is still actively developed - if
there's anyone reading this that prefers Atom over VS Code, I'd really like to
find out why?

~~~
galfarragem
VS Code, like Python, seems to be the second best tool on everything: it looks
good but not as much as Atom, it's fast but not like Sublime or Vim, it's a
lightweight IDE but not a full IDE.

~~~
lucidone
I agree except for TypeScript and JavaScript - vscode is the best code editor
I've experienced for both.

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wakeywakeywakey
Prediction: I believe eventually MS will kill Atom or let development
languish. People will complain that "MS is evil" and "look who they were in
the past" and so on, but devs will go where the features are.

VS Code is one of the finest examples of open source Done Right™, and while it
owes something to Atom and Electron, this is pure open source darwinism.

~~~
xrd
Can anyone who has stayed with Atom after evaluating VSCode comment on why to
stay with Atom? I switched to VSCode and would never consider going back to
Atom at this point.

Since the GitHub acquisition, it makes no sense for MS to maintain both and I
agree 100% with the parent comment that this will be killed soon.

~~~
citrusx
Two things about VSC, in comparison to Atom, that are Done Wrong: 1)
Extensibility. There's like a dozen times more friction involved in creating a
plugin for VSC than for Atom. Atom was built to be as easy to change as a web
app. They also created apm, which is sort of a clone of npm, for installing
plugins. 2) Configurability. I can set personal keyboard shortcuts very
easily, and in a way that's easily transportable between installations. I can
create a new theme in minutes. Also, the way it handles the config for
individual packages is well thought out. Plus, I can tarball my packages
directory, extract it to a new machine, and it's basically ready to go with
everything.

It's very possible for VSC to improve in these areas. In fact, I'd love to see
an "Atom mode" that changes the UI/UX to more closely resemble Atom (and,
somewhat by extension, Sublime). You laugh, but there's a reason that every
editor takes a swing at a "vim mode". People get comfortable with the
aesthetics of their tools.

~~~
asdkhadsj
Funny, I just commented on my desire to pick one of the top editors to write a
complex plugin in.

While VSC sounds like a better editor, I want to write a multi-cursor, modal
based editor with some UI tweaks. Ideally I'll use Xi long term, but I'd like
a prototype working first. By your description, it sounds like I should stick
to Atom for plugin development then?

~~~
citrusx
I think you'll find that it's easier to do in Atom. However - Atom's API is
also probably easier to shoot yourself in the foot with.

Maybe try getting started on both, and see which one is easier or more
comfortable?

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dmnd
I do a lot of code review, so I'm excited to be able to do that from my editor
where all of my other tooling is set up instead of in a web browser. Suggested
code changes will be much easier if I write them in a context where I can
compile/run them. And no more clicking that "expand" thing 20 times to see
something earlier in the file.

Thanks, Atom team!

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ksec
To anyone who is following Atom closely,

1\. What happened to Xray? The Next Generation of Atom that was suppose to fix
all the performance problem of Atom.

2\. Is Atom as fast as VS Code now?

~~~
Klathmon
1\. I haven't heard anything about it recently but that doesn't mean work
isn't continuing on it. Xray wasn't supposed to "fix" anything really, it was
a fairly extreme experiment to see if it would be worth going down that path.

2\. No, and it's not trying to be, as "speed" isn't their top priority,
extensibility is.

That being said, the days of opening a 5mb file and the editor getting brought
to its knees are largely over (unless you have poorly written extensions which
can still take everything down, because again in Atom extensions are
EVERYTHING and can do ANYTHING).

~~~
ksec
Strange they are not focusing on Speed.

The primary reason VS Code took over Atom was because of Speed. It shows what
is possible with Electron. Not that it is anywhere near the speed of Sublime
Text, but it was good enough for most and at least bearable to me. Compared to
Atom, all the feedback ( on most Internet forum at least ) are performance
related.

~~~
carmate383
I tried 1.36.0 and found it pleasantly faster than I remembered, especially
the highlighting on large files. I would. Startup-time is still painfully
slow, but it feels like once it is "up and going" it's just as fast.

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aashcan
>The fuzzy finder’s project crawling performance has been improved
dramatically by switching to a ripgrep-powered backend. This is most
noticeable in projects with large numbers of files - for example, we measured
a 14x speed boost in a project with 270K files.

Another leaf out of VS Code's book?

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Hamuko
Does Atom still eat any resources your computer has to offer?

~~~
olliepop
Yes, and it's worse than ever before.

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JHonaker
I don’t understand why Microsoft hasn’t pulled the GitHub integration into VS
Code. It seems like it would be in their best interest given that they own
both now.

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dbg31415
I get that it's got a bit more going on, but Atom's startup time is still so
much slower than Sublime Text.

I open a file, there's still this "clunky" lag of 2-3 seconds to open. I hope
they work on optimizing this at some point.

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graphememes
Atom lost the HTML Editor race.

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outside1234
Atom is still being developed?

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elbrian
While Atom was Mac-only, VSCode was eating their lunch.

It's too little, too late now.

~~~
guessmyname
> _While Atom was Mac-only, VSCode was eating their lunch. It 's too little,
> too late now._

What do you mean? Atom has always been available for macOS, Windows, and
Linux.

~~~
nnq
...ever _tried actually using it_ on Windows? Like a year ago it got to ok-ish
usable. A bit before that even on most Linuxes it had crappy performance.

Again, I like Atom's hackability, and mainly avoid it because the ecosystem of
plugins is so full of halfly owkring abandonware

~~~
kraftman
First I've heard of this. I used Atom for a few years on windows and ubuntu
without any issues except opening very large files.

