5 ms·

I never understood why everyone complains about atom's speed on HN. I have been using it for 3 years as my default editor with lots of plugins, never experience

by obilgic 10y ago

I never understood why everyone complains about atom's speed on HN. I have been using it for 3 years as my default editor with lots of plugins, never experienced performance issues.

slimsag 10y ago
Have you tried Sublime? I'm asking honestly, because I used Atom for a year and thought it was pretty fast until I tried Sublime.
azeirah 10y ago
The people with complaints about performance issues are the people coming from Sublime Text. Everything you do in Sublime is done instantly. Try opening the command panel (ctrl+shift+p) both in sublime and atom. At least a 300ms difference. Multiple cursors, switching to different panels (I can see the whole pane getting rendered in front of my eyes -- not instant!), even things like loading the list of installable plugins or installing a plugin is far, __far__ faster in sublime, assuming package control, compared to Atom! Sublime also has this insane feature where no matter how many plugins you have installed, Sublime will still start up in about 200-300 milliseconds, as fast as notepad on Windows and faster than gedit on linux. Atom only goes slower and slower and slower the more plugins you install. When you're used to an editor that does everything instantly, everything that takes longer than 200ms takes too long.
- meric 10y ago
  Wow, that explains everything so perfectly. I am a Sublime user. Your comment has moved me to register my copy now. (I'm serious!)
- philliphaydon 10y ago
  I came from Notepad2 on windows. Tried sublime, atom, vscode, brackets. End d up with brackets for a long time but as much as I hate atom. It's where the plugins at. :(
- seanwilson 10y ago
  > Try opening the command panel (ctrl+shift+p) both in sublime and atom. At least a 300ms difference. Opens instantly in Atom for me.
  - szatkus 10y ago
    For me too. I also tried few other things (open file etc.) and everything works instantly. Just startup time could be faster, but I launch it once a day at most so not a big problem for me.
  - spriggan3 10y ago
    Try Open 10 files in Atom then open the File Panel. Try the same in Sublime Text. There is a noticeable speed difference.
    - yAnonymous 10y ago
      * while standing on your hands upside down and drinking a glass of water You will notice the difference!!11
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
- HCIdivision17 10y ago
  This is largely why I really like Sublime. But! It's worth remembering that it wasn't always that way. One of the huge wins for Sublime Text 2 was that it started up much faster than before; nowadays it's almost as snappy as Notepad! So I'm fairly hopeful for Atom. It took years for Sublime to get to where it is today, and Atom looks like it's on track to be a great contender. ... Until then though, I'll still cherish Sublime as my go-to text editor: it's got a well earned head start.
- cortesi 10y ago
  I use both Sublime and Atom, and have switched over to Atom as my daily driver. While there's a small responsiveness difference, it's not enough to bother me for most use cases.
- yAnonymous 10y ago
  ST was great before the Electron-based editors surfaced and I think it's the reason we now have all the good editors, but nowadays it's just lacking in features compared to the rest. For example, you still can't move the sidebar to the right side after all these years.
  - krisdol 10y ago
    In sublime or atom? You can in atom but I believe it may be via a plugin.
runako 10y ago
When I'm working in Atom, it always feels like I'm an accidental click away from a hang. Open the wrong file and hang. A wrong file could be something too big for Atom to open, or just a smallish XML file with all of its contents on one line. Either will lock Atom for a while on a high-spec MacBook Pro. Other than that, I agree it's pretty fast for most things.

by obilgic 10y ago

I never understood why everyone complains about atom's speed on HN. I have been using it for 3 years as my default editor with lots of plugins, never experienced performance issues.

slimsag 10y ago

Have you tried Sublime? I'm asking honestly, because I used Atom for a year and thought it was pretty fast until I tried Sublime.

azeirah 10y ago

The people with complaints about performance issues are the people coming from Sublime Text. Everything you do in Sublime is done instantly. Try opening the command panel (ctrl+shift+p) both in sublime and atom. At least a 300ms difference. Multiple cursors, switching to different panels (I can see the whole pane getting rendered in front of my eyes -- not instant!), even things like loading the list of installable plugins or installing a plugin is far, __far__ faster in sublime, assuming package control, compared to Atom! Sublime also has this insane feature where no matter how many plugins you have installed, Sublime will still start up in about 200-300 milliseconds, as fast as notepad on Windows and faster than gedit on linux. Atom only goes slower and slower and slower the more plugins you install. When you're used to an editor that does everything instantly, everything that takes longer than 200ms takes too long.

meric 10y ago
Wow, that explains everything so perfectly. I am a Sublime user. Your comment has moved me to register my copy now. (I'm serious!)
philliphaydon 10y ago
I came from Notepad2 on windows. Tried sublime, atom, vscode, brackets. End d up with brackets for a long time but as much as I hate atom. It's where the plugins at. :(
seanwilson 10y ago
> Try opening the command panel (ctrl+shift+p) both in sublime and atom. At least a 300ms difference. Opens instantly in Atom for me.
- szatkus 10y ago
  For me too. I also tried few other things (open file etc.) and everything works instantly. Just startup time could be faster, but I launch it once a day at most so not a big problem for me.
- spriggan3 10y ago
  Try Open 10 files in Atom then open the File Panel. Try the same in Sublime Text. There is a noticeable speed difference.
  - yAnonymous 10y ago
    * while standing on your hands upside down and drinking a glass of water You will notice the difference!!11
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
HCIdivision17 10y ago
This is largely why I really like Sublime. But! It's worth remembering that it wasn't always that way. One of the huge wins for Sublime Text 2 was that it started up much faster than before; nowadays it's almost as snappy as Notepad! So I'm fairly hopeful for Atom. It took years for Sublime to get to where it is today, and Atom looks like it's on track to be a great contender. ... Until then though, I'll still cherish Sublime as my go-to text editor: it's got a well earned head start.
cortesi 10y ago
I use both Sublime and Atom, and have switched over to Atom as my daily driver. While there's a small responsiveness difference, it's not enough to bother me for most use cases.
yAnonymous 10y ago
ST was great before the Electron-based editors surfaced and I think it's the reason we now have all the good editors, but nowadays it's just lacking in features compared to the rest. For example, you still can't move the sidebar to the right side after all these years.
- krisdol 10y ago
  In sublime or atom? You can in atom but I believe it may be via a plugin.

runako 10y ago

When I'm working in Atom, it always feels like I'm an accidental click away from a hang. Open the wrong file and hang. A wrong file could be something too big for Atom to open, or just a smallish XML file with all of its contents on one line. Either will lock Atom for a while on a high-spec MacBook Pro. Other than that, I agree it's pretty fast for most things.