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I am very excited about this, I love the Github team and this looks like a great tool. My only question is -- why should I switch to this from Sublime Text? A

I am very excited about this, I love the Github team and this looks like a great tool. My only question is -- why should I switch to this from Sublime Text? Are there specific use cases it handles better out of the box, or is it more of a modular base that will be expected to grow and outfeature ST2/3's seasoned plugin economy? I am very happy with Sublime Text now, but I would be willing to switch if either it gained a lot of traction, or could do stuff that I couldn't do with Sublime.

olegbl 13y ago
I believe the main benefit is that it is much easier to customize/change/tweak.
- stormbrew 13y ago
  I don't see a reason to take that as a given. This uses node, ST uses python. Sublime plugins have a huge amount of power and python is certainly not terrible to work in.
  - johnthedebs 13y ago
    I've been playing with it for a few minutes now, and it's definitely the case that it's easier to tweak. Not because of the underlying language, but because they expose so much of what's available through a GUI. I'm blown away by how cool this is. I'm just really hoping for good Vim keybindings and I will pay good money for this once it's out of beta.
    - mattyohe 13y ago
      Lots of work to be done in the vim department: https://github.com/atom/vim-mode https://github.com/atom/vim-mode
    - mrbogle 13y ago
      You may have found it already, but there is: https://github.com/atom/vim-mode https://github.com/atom/vim-mode
      - johnthedebs 13y ago
        Yup, saw it and looking forward to trying it (haven't yet). But just reading through the description made it clear it wasn't quite ready yet.
      - mihaifm 13y ago
        written in Coffeescript? Oh God how did we get to this...poor old Vim...
    - brianpgordon 13y ago
      You've been playing with it? How did you get your hands on a copy?
      - johnthedebs 13y ago
        I signed up for an invite less than 1 min after I saw the first mention of it on twitter (https://twitter.com/defunkt/status/438789450147979264 https://twitter.com/defunkt/status/438789450147979264) and received the invite maybe 15 minutes or so after that. I was given 3 invites, I gave away 2 but I'll give the third to the first person to email me. (EDIT: gave away the last one) Doesn't seem like they're keeping too tight of a lid on it, but I guess we'll see. It seems like it can be freely passed around; I think they're just trying to gauge interest since it won't be free after the beta period.
    - doktrin 13y ago
      A good VIM keybinding plugin is a must for me as well. The one available for LightTable, for instance, simply wasn't sufficient IMO. I can't specifically remember what it lacked, but it was enough to throw me off. Vintage mode in ST2/3 isn't perfect, but it's pretty solid. Atom looks interesting. I really look forward to trying it out.
      - bjeanes 13y ago
        Agreed. Nothing beats evil-mode in Emacs, as far as I'm concerned. That's a model for other vim emulation layers to follow IMO.
        doorhammer 13y ago
        Don't hear as many folks talking about emacs in evil mode. I tried that out for a bit, and I'm not really sure why I didn't stick with it. I used it a few months. I always liked the modal nature of vim and the operator/motion sequences, but I'm a fan of lisp/emacs and remember enjoying how emacs was put together more, from a modification standpoint (I don't remember any of it now) I'll have to try that out again
      - johnthedebs 13y ago
        Yeah, Vintage mode was okay. I liked the Vintageous plugin a bit better but even that left me wishing for Vim some of the time (more time to adapt might've helped). Other than that, it seems like an incredibly well-designed editor. Really looking forward to seeing what happens to it now that it's out in the open.
- scott_karana 13y ago
  It's also open source, so maybe we'll see some creative hacking to the core.
  - Touche 13y ago
    Look downthread, the core is not open source.
    - scott_karana 13y ago
      Ugh. :(
skizm 13y ago
This appears to be free. ST is free but makes me feel bad about not paying for it every few saves.
- Jare 13y ago
  That's because ST is not free.
- atestu 13y ago
  Only for now https://github.com/atom/welcome/blob/master/lib/welcome.md https://github.com/atom/welcome/blob/master/lib/welcome.md Atom is free during the beta period.
  - aks314 13y ago
    I'm guessing they might include this as a feature with private repositories.
kansface 13y ago
In practice, the ST3 API is extremely limiting and poorly implemented. The docs are both lacking and dated (read incorrect). It is trivial to crash ST3 by making the incorrect sequence of correct API calls. It is also common to resort to polling the editor to make up for other deficiencies. The API also only allows for extremely limited UI choices forcing highly unintuitive interfaces on end users. The ST3 runtime also features such gems as not shipping the ssl module on linux (while ST2 stripped out even more stuff). I also expect NPM to be much better in practice than the sublime package manager which frequently ships broken code. JS is a better choice than python for async code which will make writing plugins easier. Furthermore, ST is 3 people who largely ignore all feedback from the community regarding bugs and features. It won't be hard to out compete ST in the long run.
- chid 13y ago
  What do you mean polling the editor? Are there any examples of plugins that do that?
  - kansface 13y ago
    I am a co-founder of floobits- https://floobits.com/about https://floobits.com/about. We build support for real time collaboration into existing editors. I chiefly work on our editor integrations. In terms of ease of development, the order goes like this: IntelliJ ~ Emacs > Sublime ~ Ace >> Vim. In terms of community and support, the former ordering is also true. POLLING: Here we are trying to get the Window, from the Sublime API. Sometimes it doesn't exist (even when windows are open). There is no reliable API to tell us when new ones are made or when old ones go away. Presumably, post_window_command (http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/api_reference.html#sublime_plugin.EventListener http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/api_reference.html#sublime...) would fire off with a close command, but this function has never worked. https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/floobits.py#L396 https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/flo... Here is another quick hack polling the editor to know when its safe to call the sublime API: https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/floobits.py#L922 https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/flo... Here is a yet anther example needed for functionality and using callbacks to keep sublime from crashing: https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/floo/sublime_connection.py#L194 https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/flo... Here is another example of pure craziness forced on us by ST3. We need to patch Views, but ignore our own patches (locally) so we don't form an echo loop. We also need to move the cursor so it doesn't jump. Sublime deals with these changes so poorly, we are forced to jump through hoops. In contrast- emacs/vim/intellij are basically fine just dumping on the entire buffer. https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/floobits.py#L804 https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/flo...
pyoung 13y ago
I like sublime, but my primary computer has an ARM processor and there is no sublime port. The sublime developers have stated that they don't have the bandwidth to handle an ARM port, and that's fair. But I find it difficult to justify paying for a license, when I can only use the editor ~25% of the time. An editor that is sublime-like and works everywhere would be awesome. I can't tell if atom has this, but a hosted version would also be cool, allowing users to hop on the service and do some quick work when on unfamiliar machines.
- enscr 13y ago
  'Primary computer is ARM' - and you are a developer? I'm genuinely curious about your setup & work.
  - bluedino 13y ago
    Chromebook?
    - pyoung 13y ago
      Yup, the Samsung model. Use it for most of my work. I've got an old clunker that is x86, but that thing is showing it's age so only use it when it's absolutely necessary (when there is no ARM port for an application i need, for example). The battery life and weight/size of the chromebook are really awesome. Using crouton to run an OS is pretty painless, although you do run into a few bugs every now and then. Also, the hard drive needs to be supplemented with and SD card. But for the most part, works as good as a MacBook Air for a quarter of the price.
  - Morphling 13y ago
    I do fair amount of work on my Chromebook, granted I work mostly with Rails apps, so I can just connect to my server and do my stuff over SSH

olegbl 13y ago

I believe the main benefit is that it is much easier to customize/change/tweak.

stormbrew 13y ago
I don't see a reason to take that as a given. This uses node, ST uses python. Sublime plugins have a huge amount of power and python is certainly not terrible to work in.
- johnthedebs 13y ago
  I've been playing with it for a few minutes now, and it's definitely the case that it's easier to tweak. Not because of the underlying language, but because they expose so much of what's available through a GUI. I'm blown away by how cool this is. I'm just really hoping for good Vim keybindings and I will pay good money for this once it's out of beta.
  - mattyohe 13y ago
    Lots of work to be done in the vim department: https://github.com/atom/vim-mode https://github.com/atom/vim-mode
  - mrbogle 13y ago
    You may have found it already, but there is: https://github.com/atom/vim-mode https://github.com/atom/vim-mode
    - johnthedebs 13y ago
      Yup, saw it and looking forward to trying it (haven't yet). But just reading through the description made it clear it wasn't quite ready yet.
    - mihaifm 13y ago
      written in Coffeescript? Oh God how did we get to this...poor old Vim...
  - brianpgordon 13y ago
    You've been playing with it? How did you get your hands on a copy?
    - johnthedebs 13y ago
      I signed up for an invite less than 1 min after I saw the first mention of it on twitter (https://twitter.com/defunkt/status/438789450147979264 https://twitter.com/defunkt/status/438789450147979264) and received the invite maybe 15 minutes or so after that. I was given 3 invites, I gave away 2 but I'll give the third to the first person to email me. (EDIT: gave away the last one) Doesn't seem like they're keeping too tight of a lid on it, but I guess we'll see. It seems like it can be freely passed around; I think they're just trying to gauge interest since it won't be free after the beta period.
  - doktrin 13y ago
    A good VIM keybinding plugin is a must for me as well. The one available for LightTable, for instance, simply wasn't sufficient IMO. I can't specifically remember what it lacked, but it was enough to throw me off. Vintage mode in ST2/3 isn't perfect, but it's pretty solid. Atom looks interesting. I really look forward to trying it out.
    - bjeanes 13y ago
      Agreed. Nothing beats evil-mode in Emacs, as far as I'm concerned. That's a model for other vim emulation layers to follow IMO.
      - doorhammer 13y ago
        Don't hear as many folks talking about emacs in evil mode. I tried that out for a bit, and I'm not really sure why I didn't stick with it. I used it a few months. I always liked the modal nature of vim and the operator/motion sequences, but I'm a fan of lisp/emacs and remember enjoying how emacs was put together more, from a modification standpoint (I don't remember any of it now) I'll have to try that out again
    - johnthedebs 13y ago
      Yeah, Vintage mode was okay. I liked the Vintageous plugin a bit better but even that left me wishing for Vim some of the time (more time to adapt might've helped). Other than that, it seems like an incredibly well-designed editor. Really looking forward to seeing what happens to it now that it's out in the open.
scott_karana 13y ago
It's also open source, so maybe we'll see some creative hacking to the core.
- Touche 13y ago
  Look downthread, the core is not open source.
  - scott_karana 13y ago
    Ugh. :(

skizm 13y ago

This appears to be free. ST is free but makes me feel bad about not paying for it every few saves.

Jare 13y ago
That's because ST is not free.
atestu 13y ago
Only for now https://github.com/atom/welcome/blob/master/lib/welcome.md https://github.com/atom/welcome/blob/master/lib/welcome.md Atom is free during the beta period.
- aks314 13y ago
  I'm guessing they might include this as a feature with private repositories.

kansface 13y ago

In practice, the ST3 API is extremely limiting and poorly implemented. The docs are both lacking and dated (read incorrect). It is trivial to crash ST3 by making the incorrect sequence of correct API calls. It is also common to resort to polling the editor to make up for other deficiencies. The API also only allows for extremely limited UI choices forcing highly unintuitive interfaces on end users. The ST3 runtime also features such gems as not shipping the ssl module on linux (while ST2 stripped out even more stuff). I also expect NPM to be much better in practice than the sublime package manager which frequently ships broken code. JS is a better choice than python for async code which will make writing plugins easier. Furthermore, ST is 3 people who largely ignore all feedback from the community regarding bugs and features. It won't be hard to out compete ST in the long run.

chid 13y ago
What do you mean polling the editor? Are there any examples of plugins that do that?
- kansface 13y ago
  I am a co-founder of floobits- https://floobits.com/about https://floobits.com/about. We build support for real time collaboration into existing editors. I chiefly work on our editor integrations. In terms of ease of development, the order goes like this: IntelliJ ~ Emacs > Sublime ~ Ace >> Vim. In terms of community and support, the former ordering is also true. POLLING: Here we are trying to get the Window, from the Sublime API. Sometimes it doesn't exist (even when windows are open). There is no reliable API to tell us when new ones are made or when old ones go away. Presumably, post_window_command (http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/api_reference.html#sublime_plugin.EventListener http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/api_reference.html#sublime...) would fire off with a close command, but this function has never worked. https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/floobits.py#L396 https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/flo... Here is another quick hack polling the editor to know when its safe to call the sublime API: https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/floobits.py#L922 https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/flo... Here is a yet anther example needed for functionality and using callbacks to keep sublime from crashing: https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/floo/sublime_connection.py#L194 https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/flo... Here is another example of pure craziness forced on us by ST3. We need to patch Views, but ignore our own patches (locally) so we don't form an echo loop. We also need to move the cursor so it doesn't jump. Sublime deals with these changes so poorly, we are forced to jump through hoops. In contrast- emacs/vim/intellij are basically fine just dumping on the entire buffer. https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/floobits.py#L804 https://github.com/Floobits/floobits-sublime/blob/master/flo...

pyoung 13y ago

I like sublime, but my primary computer has an ARM processor and there is no sublime port. The sublime developers have stated that they don't have the bandwidth to handle an ARM port, and that's fair. But I find it difficult to justify paying for a license, when I can only use the editor ~25% of the time. An editor that is sublime-like and works everywhere would be awesome. I can't tell if atom has this, but a hosted version would also be cool, allowing users to hop on the service and do some quick work when on unfamiliar machines.

enscr 13y ago
'Primary computer is ARM' - and you are a developer? I'm genuinely curious about your setup & work.
- bluedino 13y ago
  Chromebook?
  - pyoung 13y ago
    Yup, the Samsung model. Use it for most of my work. I've got an old clunker that is x86, but that thing is showing it's age so only use it when it's absolutely necessary (when there is no ARM port for an application i need, for example). The battery life and weight/size of the chromebook are really awesome. Using crouton to run an OS is pretty painless, although you do run into a few bugs every now and then. Also, the hard drive needs to be supplemented with and SD card. But for the most part, works as good as a MacBook Air for a quarter of the price.
- Morphling 13y ago
  I do fair amount of work on my Chromebook, granted I work mostly with Rails apps, so I can just connect to my server and do my stuff over SSH