I love Atom, and use it every day. (Happy anniversary Atom!)
But I don't get one very big thing about Atom: why is it so intimately tied to Electron?
Coming from a company that has a huge web site dealing in source code, and that even has a source code editor embedded in it, I can't understand why they would preclude Atom from running in a browser. Github offering online-IDE functionality seems like a such a natural extension to their business.
Plugins wouldn't work because they require installing node modules during runtime. Accessing the file system wouldn't work. Any multiprocessor support wouldn't work. I guess I don't see the point in an online editor.
I'm building an electron app that's web compatible and you lose a lot making it work for both and it requires a lot of planning to make feasible.
Hmmm! When you enquired about the intimate link to Electron, I assumed that it was because you'd prefer a native interface (GTK+, ncurses, etc.), not because you wanted it in the browser.
I can confidently say that I hope that I never have to use a text editor inside my browser.
So a big part of IDE features rely on the Node-y native access that Electron gives (for example calling out to external programs). You _could_ have things like syntax highlihgting, but it would end up being pretty crippled in the browser.
> I can't understand why they would preclude Atom from running in a browser.
If memory serves me right, I believe it was conceived to be a standalone commercial product, with tight GitHub integration; but somewhere a long the line, it became a free open source project that it is today.
I still don't understand why so much effort is being put into an editor though. I'm guessing people are drawing a comparison with the web browser war, with who owns the editor, will own the developer mind share.
I've taken on a curiosity of getting Atom to work in ChromeOS (natively, not with crouton or other developer mode solutions). It's just a curiosity at this point, I make no promises. But I'd think if Atom could jump to another environment besides Electron, then getting it inside a browser wouldn't be much more work.
Downvotes because I'd like to use Atom in a browser? Stay classy HN.
edit: If you think Atom, or parts of it, running in a browser is a _bad_ idea, maybe say why rather than just click a little down arrow.
I'll point out that GitHub embeds Ace when editing files. Ace is pretty good for quick edits, but Atom's editor is better, as is the whole package of UI. From editing from Chromebooks, to tighter git and GitHub integrations, Atom on the web could do a lot of good. If I were GitHub, I'd look to take advantage of the awesome work done on Atom in the core business somehow.
Obviously, if you are loading 100s of random extensions made by fledgling JS programmers you are gonna have a bad time. Obviously if you load a 2gb text file and try to syntax highlight it, you're gonna have a bad time.
The core editor is fast, looks great, and is stupid extensible. Yeah, it's not vim fast, and yeah it won't fly on your dads old compaq, but it's fast enough not to care at this point.
Atom already has this integrated, not as a plugin, but right into the editor. I cannot recall where at the moment, but you can get a list of every package, and it'll list the startup time in milliseconds.
Happy Anniversary Atom. I switched from Sublime over a year ago and love it.
Never had an issue with slow performance, and I am using it on an 8 year old MacBook Pro, lol.
Then again, I keep my plugins to a minimum (around 10 or 12 I think), and I also tend to keep my code in small files of around 100 - 400 lines of code per file. I routinely work in 6 to 10 open files at once, but never had a slowness issue.
The 2 or 3 occassions where I've had to open a humongous log file, I've just resorted to TextEdit or Sublime...
I really love working with Atom and almost completely switched from sublime text.
One problem I ran into lately quite often is that there seem to be shared resources with Chrome/Chromium on Ubuntu 14.04. Sometimes Chrome plugins and Atom crash at the same time and I know of another Ubuntu installation where Chrome and Atom are having weird graphic glitches which render the computer unable to work with.
[+] [-] spankalee|9 years ago|reply
But I don't get one very big thing about Atom: why is it so intimately tied to Electron?
Coming from a company that has a huge web site dealing in source code, and that even has a source code editor embedded in it, I can't understand why they would preclude Atom from running in a browser. Github offering online-IDE functionality seems like a such a natural extension to their business.
[+] [-] elliotec|9 years ago|reply
Electron is kinda like a browser anyway, you can even open Chromium's dev tools like you would in Chrome.
They haven't precluded Atom from running in a browser, they literally built it in a browser and they just don't have it online.
[+] [-] qudat|9 years ago|reply
I'm building an electron app that's web compatible and you lose a lot making it work for both and it requires a lot of planning to make feasible.
[+] [-] gnuvince|9 years ago|reply
I can confidently say that I hope that I never have to use a text editor inside my browser.
[+] [-] rtpg|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sdesol|9 years ago|reply
If memory serves me right, I believe it was conceived to be a standalone commercial product, with tight GitHub integration; but somewhere a long the line, it became a free open source project that it is today.
I still don't understand why so much effort is being put into an editor though. I'm guessing people are drawing a comparison with the web browser war, with who owns the editor, will own the developer mind share.
[+] [-] city41|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spankalee|9 years ago|reply
edit: If you think Atom, or parts of it, running in a browser is a _bad_ idea, maybe say why rather than just click a little down arrow.
I'll point out that GitHub embeds Ace when editing files. Ace is pretty good for quick edits, but Atom's editor is better, as is the whole package of UI. From editing from Chromebooks, to tighter git and GitHub integrations, Atom on the web could do a lot of good. If I were GitHub, I'd look to take advantage of the awesome work done on Atom in the core business somehow.
[+] [-] oblio|9 years ago|reply
Other than that: kudos for the great OSS project!
[+] [-] tbrock|9 years ago|reply
Obviously, if you are loading 100s of random extensions made by fledgling JS programmers you are gonna have a bad time. Obviously if you load a 2gb text file and try to syntax highlight it, you're gonna have a bad time.
The core editor is fast, looks great, and is stupid extensible. Yeah, it's not vim fast, and yeah it won't fly on your dads old compaq, but it's fast enough not to care at this point.
[+] [-] gjtorikian|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cyberferret|9 years ago|reply
Never had an issue with slow performance, and I am using it on an 8 year old MacBook Pro, lol.
Then again, I keep my plugins to a minimum (around 10 or 12 I think), and I also tend to keep my code in small files of around 100 - 400 lines of code per file. I routinely work in 6 to 10 open files at once, but never had a slowness issue.
The 2 or 3 occassions where I've had to open a humongous log file, I've just resorted to TextEdit or Sublime...
[+] [-] Redoubts|9 years ago|reply
https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1729
It's really the one big thing that keeps me on native editors.
[+] [-] rmetzler|9 years ago|reply
One problem I ran into lately quite often is that there seem to be shared resources with Chrome/Chromium on Ubuntu 14.04. Sometimes Chrome plugins and Atom crash at the same time and I know of another Ubuntu installation where Chrome and Atom are having weird graphic glitches which render the computer unable to work with.
[+] [-] wyldfire|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zigomir|9 years ago|reply
Reading this thread I gave a Atom another shot, uninstalling all plugins, and damn, how much faster it is :) I can open big files easily now.
[+] [-] dalacv|9 years ago|reply