4 ms·

Serious question: why don't Atom users use other products? If you just need a free text editor that works well with source code, why not Vim or Emacs? With the

Serious question: why don't Atom users use other products? If you just need a free text editor that works well with source code, why not Vim or Emacs? With the right plugin (or a terminal) it probably integrates better with what you're doing than Atom-- excepting React Native with their Atom plugin. If you're willing to pay, why not JetBrains or Sublime? I just don't understand the middle ground that Atom seems to exist in. What is it best at?

arvinsim 11y ago
> Vim or Emacs -- UI is too foreign > JetBrains or Sublime - not free Some people just want a free Sublime clone.
- BigJono 11y ago
  Sublime isn't free?
  - oblio 11y ago
    It's annoy-o-ware.
  - dagw 11y ago
    Nope. Commercial software that cost $70. However they don't disable or cripple the software after your 30 day trial is up, they just pop up regular reminders.
freekh 11y ago
Maybe worse is better also applies to editors :)
ericdykstra 11y ago
It's free, it has all the features I want from a text editor (not very many), and it doesn't get in the way of my programming at all, so no reason to switch.
dagw 11y ago
What is it best at? Nothing, but it doesn't have to be. It's pretty good at most things, terrible at nothing, has a very shallow learning curve, comes with a pretty sane default setup, lots of useful plugins and is easy to configure.
throweway 11y ago
Good point i did some elm dev in atom for a bit. But i do prefer gvim. Because I like vim but sonetimes i just prefer to use a mouse!
stemuk 11y ago
1. I found it interesting that some 'projects' only officially support Atom, e.g. www.polymer-project.org 2. Really fast release scedule. While this may trade of some stability here and there, it cetainly adds new features quicker than Sublime or Vim (AFAIK). --If you're willing to pay, why not JetBrains or Sublime? 3. Why should you pay for other Editors if you don't have to with atom? :D I'm a CS student and a lot of people I know are using atom because they can't afford/ are not willing to pay ~50 bucks for an IDE/ text editor.
chr1 11y ago
Using Vim or Emacs is not a very compelling option, their ui is too archaic and hard to use (e.g. scrolling page changes selection and there is no way to change that!) Learning to use vim and emacs requires large effort, and customizing them requires learning languages/apis that are not useful for anything else and are not interesting. That's why many people prefer to endure some slowness, but use something with nice ui and based on web tech they know and love.

arvinsim 11y ago

> Vim or Emacs -- UI is too foreign > JetBrains or Sublime - not free Some people just want a free Sublime clone.

BigJono 11y ago
Sublime isn't free?
- oblio 11y ago
  It's annoy-o-ware.
- dagw 11y ago
  Nope. Commercial software that cost $70. However they don't disable or cripple the software after your 30 day trial is up, they just pop up regular reminders.

freekh 11y ago

Maybe worse is better also applies to editors :)

ericdykstra 11y ago

It's free, it has all the features I want from a text editor (not very many), and it doesn't get in the way of my programming at all, so no reason to switch.

dagw 11y ago

What is it best at? Nothing, but it doesn't have to be. It's pretty good at most things, terrible at nothing, has a very shallow learning curve, comes with a pretty sane default setup, lots of useful plugins and is easy to configure.

throweway 11y ago

Good point i did some elm dev in atom for a bit. But i do prefer gvim. Because I like vim but sonetimes i just prefer to use a mouse!

stemuk 11y ago

1. I found it interesting that some 'projects' only officially support Atom, e.g. www.polymer-project.org 2. Really fast release scedule. While this may trade of some stability here and there, it cetainly adds new features quicker than Sublime or Vim (AFAIK). --If you're willing to pay, why not JetBrains or Sublime? 3. Why should you pay for other Editors if you don't have to with atom? :D I'm a CS student and a lot of people I know are using atom because they can't afford/ are not willing to pay ~50 bucks for an IDE/ text editor.

chr1 11y ago

Using Vim or Emacs is not a very compelling option, their ui is too archaic and hard to use (e.g. scrolling page changes selection and there is no way to change that!) Learning to use vim and emacs requires large effort, and customizing them requires learning languages/apis that are not useful for anything else and are not interesting. That's why many people prefer to endure some slowness, but use something with nice ui and based on web tech they know and love.