19 ms·

Atom Is Now Open Source

914 points by jordn 12y ago

vitaluha 12y ago
How about translating it to other languages?
- sergiotapia 12y ago
  I'd also like to donate time to translate Atom to spanish.
gberger 12y ago
Hopefully someone can package a Ubuntu build now.
- probablycorey 12y ago
  https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1814 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1814
- andyhmltn 12y ago
  Check the README: Apparently you can already do it yourself. I'm just in the process of building a version at the moment on 12.04LTS. Will update
  - andyhmltn 12y ago
    Yep, it worked. Took a lot of playing about with it and this: https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1931 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1931 but finally got it building on 12.04LTS
- anjanb 12y ago
  Also, how about a RHEL package ?
- foofoobar 12y ago
  It's working under Ubuntu 13.10 here.
donaldguy 12y ago
This is exciting, and bad news for Sublime Text. Though it will be interesting to see if Atom's performance actually gets up there The Atom Shell open sourcing is also interesting ... I wonder if it will lead to a rash of other Chromium-fork-apps
- swah 12y ago
  Can I run Atom-core on top of Atom-shell like any other app? --- There are builds for atom-shell for Windows and it gives you something that looks like this: http://imgur.com/H0RcGc5 http://imgur.com/H0RcGc5 I haven't understood what you're supposed to do with it yet (I thought it was just a library). OT: Fullscreen and windowing is nicer in Windows... In OSX (@home) everything feels sluggish with the overflow of animations...
  - xpaulbettsx 12y ago
    Atom Shell is a runtime environment that you can write your own Node-in-a-web-browser apps against, yeah. Atom-shell is the C++y bits to provide some of the APIs that are available in JS. The docs for Atom Shell are pretty good, have a look at https://github.com/atom/atom-shell/tree/master/docs https://github.com/atom/atom-shell/tree/master/docs to get started
    - swah 12y ago
      Thanks for the explanation. What is not clear to me is if Atom editor is just an app that runs on top of Atom shell.
- tyleregeto 12y ago
  Its got a _long_ ways to go before sublime has anything to worry about. The plugins and language support Sublime has is its real asset. I'd be happy to make the switch when the feature parity is there, because I'm not too happy with the way Sublime 3 has played out, but that day is a ways off.
  - kipple 12y ago
ihuman 12y ago
For anyone who is curious (since there was a tad bit of concern about it in the past), here is a link to the core's license: https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/LICENSE.md https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/LICENSE.md It looks pretty open to me. However, I don't speak legalese, so I may be misunderstanding it.
- donaldguy 12y ago
  It seems to be a standard MIT License... like the blog entry says
  - ihuman 12y ago
    For some reason I accidentally skipped over the 1st sentence of the blog. Thanks for the clarification.
  - wging 12y ago
    Seems to be a bug in the MIT License that it doesn't refer to its own name within its text. By contrast the GNU GPL is more easily recognizable.
    - Agathos 12y ago
      Congratulations on making it on to @shit_hn_says! https://twitter.com/shit_hn_says/status/463711610172088320 https://twitter.com/shit_hn_says/status/463711610172088320
- unfletch 12y ago
  Here's the page for this type of license on GitHub's own Choose a License site: http://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/ http://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/ The legalese is translated into bullet points in the right-hand column.
- lukeholder 12y ago
  look like regular MIT licence no? >Today, we're excited to announce that we are open-sourcing Atom under the MIT License
brlewis 12y ago
I am now way more interested in atom than I was previously. I think this is going to be a good thing for github.
pachydermic 12y ago
I wonder why it wasn't this way from the get-go... Oh well, at least I'm actually interested in it now. Can't wait for the Linux version to try it out. Pumped that they did the right thing and open-sourced it so that it actually has a chance of becoming widespread, and more importantly, of sticking around for longer than a couple years. Good on you, Atom.io devs
- SmileyKeith 12y ago
  The instructions for building the linux version are in the readme
  - pachydermic 12y ago
    Interesting, thanks for the heads up. Last I heard it was OSX only. I may try this when I get home.
  - scope 12y ago
    it would a LOT be better if there's a deb package available, you have to do a lot of tweaking to make node work as `node`, since it's named `nodejs` to avoid package name conflict in Linux now that it's open sourced, am sure it'll take like a second for someone to release the deb package
    - BHSPitMonkey 12y ago
      In the meantime, can't you just symlink or alias that problem away?
      - scope 12y ago
        yep i can and i did, still, I'll like it far more if it `just works` without me having to open the terminal and install node, npm, make link of nodejs...
    - anti-thought 12y ago
      That (which can be fixed somewhat easily by [1]), and they rely on version >= v0.10.* which is gross as only v0.6.9 is provided by the default Ubuntu 12.04 repos (which are what is recommended by their README). [1] - `ln -s $(which nodejs) ~/bin/node`
jwcrux 12y ago
This is fantastic news! > As Emacs and Vim have demonstrated over the past three decades, if you want to build a thriving, long-lasting community around a text editor, it has to be open source. I agree whole-heartedly. In fact, I don't believe that editors like Sublime Text would have such a large following if not for the extended "free-trial" functionality. It will be exciting to see where this project goes, and I think open-sourcing the rest of the editor was a great move.
- 1qaz2wsx3edc 12y ago
  Agreed, amazing news. This is the announcement I've been waiting for. I've long been worried that with a closed source core, the editor would of fallen prey to the same issues that plague closed source editors. With that out of the way now, I'm excited for what atom will become.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - jaegerpicker 12y ago
    He literally addresses Sublime in his comment.
- pytrin 12y ago
  You're confusing "free" in pricing with "free" in freedom. A free trial creates a completely different type of community than free and open code. GitHub could have just provided a closed binary for free if they wanted to go the Sublime route.
  - ubercow13 12y ago
    I'm pretty sure he's not confusing anything
matthewmacleod 12y ago
Well, I'm thoroughly impressed and a little bit embarrassed about beating up on Atom only yesterday :)
- jdmichal 12y ago
  You should only be embarrassed if you continue to beat up on it in light of the new information. Otherwise, if your arguments were correct and valid at the time, there's no reason to be embarrassed.
  - ChrisGaudreau 12y ago
    Well said. This is an insight rarely realized.
fhinson 12y ago
Really great news for Atom. Upon its initial launch, most of the criticism around it pertained to it not being open source. I think we can certainly expect to see its growth overtake that of Sublime Text, and I'm interested to see how the community interest will stack up against other open source editors like Light Table. Hopefully Atom may join the legendary ranks of Vim and Emacs.
edwintorok 12y ago
Perhaps the blogpost should first mention what Atom is. The first time I've heard about Atom was here: https://medium.com/p/433852f4b4d1 https://medium.com/p/433852f4b4d1
- DanWaterworth 12y ago
  Perhaps the blogpost should first mention what Atom is. +1, an about page wouldn't go amiss either. I still don't know what it is. [edit] Wow, downvoted. I just want to know what it is by visiting the website quickly. It's not a lot to ask.
  - Kequc 12y ago
    It's strange how that blog post doesn't seem to link to Atom. https://atom.io/ https://atom.io/
- Fasebook 12y ago
  Just Another Javascript Layer to Pharm data.
sergiotapia 12y ago
Masivo props to Github. They just almost assuredly made this editor long-term. What was once a cool tech-demo is now probably going to go mainstream for everybody. Wow. I just can't imagine a behemoth like Github not injecting itself into Atom for the better.
davexunit 12y ago
> As Emacs and Vim have demonstrated over the past three decades, if you want to build a thriving, long-lasting community around a text editor, it has to be open source. Using a free software license is a big improvement, but I wish that they used a copyleft license like the GNU GPLv3. Inevitably, we'll see proprietary extensions and "pro" versions. Strong copyleft is important for the freedom of end users.
- poolpool 12y ago
  God forbid people want to get paid for their hard work and effort bringing something new into the world.
  - p8952 12y ago
    I forgot that the first line of the GPL reads "YOU MAY NOT SELL THIS FOR PROFIT". It's a shame there are no billion dollar companies based around the GPL... /s
    - jussij 12y ago
      > It's a shame there are no billion dollar companies based around the GPL... /s There is and it is called Google. It's a champion for Open Source and seems to use Open Source software almost exclusively across their entire organisation.
      - Mikeb85 12y ago
        The /s indicates sarcasm. Of course there is Google, Amazon, Red Hat, SUSE, even IBM uses a lot of GPL software...
        pjmlp 12y ago
        All server software. No one makes money from FOSS desktop software.
        12y ago
mempko 12y ago
Congradulations to the github team for releasing atom with an open source license. I hope future projects are free software instead of open source. EDIT: I fudge fingered this. I meant copy left license. MIT is a free software license.
- icebraining 12y ago
  MIT licensed software is free software. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#Expat https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#Expat
  - mempko 12y ago
    You are absolutely correct. I meant to say copy left license. I stayed up way to late and woke up way to early. They do say being tired is similar to being drunk... ugh.
jordn 12y ago
Interestingly, Tom Preston-Werner (former CEO of Github) said in February that Atom wouldn't be fully open-source: “Atom won't be closed source, but it won't be open source either. It will be somewhere inbetween, making it easy for us to charge for Atom while still making the source available under a restrictive license so you can see how everything works. We haven't finalized exactly how this will work yet. We will have full details ready for the official launch.” - Tom Preston-Werner, 27 Feb 2014 http://discuss.atom.io/t/why-is-atom-closed-source/82/9 http://discuss.atom.io/t/why-is-atom-closed-source/82/9 There was a HN discussion about this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7310017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7310017
- jdmichal 12y ago
  Is there any chance this change of heart has to do with his departure? Perhaps the team always wanted to commit to being fully open-source, and he was the blocker.
  - tomp 12y ago
    Or perhaps GitHub wants to salvage their reputation in the Tech circles by doing "something good" without too much business loss (selling text editors probably isn't very good business).
    - vdaniuk 12y ago
      Salvage their reputation? Are you talking about that inappropriate behavior by one of the cofounders incident? Because if you are, consider that you may be significantly overestimating its influence on the elusive "tech circles".
    - Jare 12y ago
      GitHub's reputation in tech circles is extremely good. Don't confuse the noise with the signal.
      - afternooner 12y ago
pdknsk 12y ago
I followed the steps, but it didn't download. $ git clone git@github.com:atom/atom.git Cloning into 'atom'... The authenticity of host 'github.com (192.30.252.129)' can't be established. RSA key fingerprint is 16:27:ac:a5:76:28:2d:36:63:1b:56:4d:eb:df:a6:48. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? y Please type 'yes' or 'no': yes Warning: Permanently added 'github.com,192.30.252.129' (RSA) to the list of known hosts. Permission denied (publickey). fatal: Could not read from remote repository. This works. $ git clone https://github.com/atom/atom
- prezjordan 12y ago
  Looks like their README reflects the fact that anyone who could see the repo could also push to it. You should submit a PR :) EDIT: I am mistaken. I thought cloning git@ meant you could read/write from it (aka allowed to push). Turns out it's just a public key thing. Comment above me is correct.
  - meemo 12y ago
    I think it assumes that you have a github account. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing considering who they are.
- nandhp 12y ago
  > Permission denied (publickey). You need to add your public key to your github account. https://github.com/settings/ssh https://github.com/settings/ssh
  - bulatb 12y ago
    Or clone with https.
krautsourced 12y ago
I wonder if this was partially because they considered the effort involved to develop a Windows and Linux version, plus the amount to get the performance where people would like it, and then decided it's not worth it? At least commercially.
rayiner 12y ago
I'm excited to see all these new IDE projects, but have we pretty much given up on having a good, integrated debugger?
- wmil 12y ago
  I think we have. Debuggers are highly language specific. It's just easier to have a separate debugger for each language. I think it'd be nice if some of the IDEs gave up on forcing everything into their project structure. There's a real market for stand alone visual debuggers that don't try to manage your entire project.
  - saurik 12y ago
    But that was the whole point of an IDE: it integrated the development environment, piecing together the editor, the compiler, and the debugger, taking advantage of intimate knowledge of the specific targets. Why are we suddenly calling a text editor an "IDE"?
    - jussij 12y ago
      > Why are we suddenly calling a text editor an "IDE"? I suspect because lots of developers actually use those text editors as their main development environment. So they have the D and the E parts of that equation covered. Also since these editors tend to be highly configurable, with a bit tweaking the user can make the editor do a lot of the I as well.
      - saurik 12y ago
        I also use a text editor as my primary development tool, yet I do not call it an IDE. I repeat: the whole point of an IDE is to be a truly integrated development environment, piecing together the editor, the compiler, and the debugger, taking advantage of intimate knowledge of the specific targets. If you don't have an integrated debugger, you are not using an IDE. There is no shame in that, but it still doesn't make any sense to be calling the tool an IDE unless it, well, is an IDE. It seems like the more useful thought is then "people seem to have stopped using IDEs as much", not "IDEs have given up on integrating features like the compiler and the debugger"... if you aren't integrating the compiler and the debugger, we already have a word for that: text editor.
prezjordan 12y ago
I'm excited to compare atom-shell with node-webkit. I wonder if any big players will use it.
anjanb 12y ago
I look forward to getting a RHEL/CentOS 6.x(6.3) package soon.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
jhh 12y ago
I wonder if the way that atom was built is or can turn into a good way to build modern cross platform desktop apps while employing web technologies. Does anyone have any input or actual experience with this?
- mmgutz 12y ago
  If you know node backend and web front-end, there are at least two options right now: For a self-contained, deployable desktop application use `node-webkit`. It is basically chromium + embedded node.js. From what I'm reading, atom-shell is similar to node-webkit. There are a few other `node-webkit` like projects on github. For lighter deployments, where your audience already has chrome and node.js installed, try `node-chrome`. It's a skeleton to run a chrome packaged app locally which communicates over websockets to a node.js service you build. Both of these are good options if your UI, notifications can be contained in HTML. Challenges arise when you want to use OS specific integrated menus, growls/notifications, tooltips, etc. Node-webkit may have addressed most of these by now.
  - jhh 12y ago
    wow, node-webkit has +12k stars on github. I must have been living under a rock.
ruswick 12y ago
This is an interesting reversal for Github. The original FAQ implied that Github would try to market Atom commercially. I'm curious as to what made them change their mind.
- jglovier 12y ago
  >The original FAQ implied that Github would try to market Atom commercially. We were leaving all options open during the beta. The adoption rate was incredible (contrary to suggestions to the contrary), and in the end the Atom team decided the best thing GitHub could do with Atom is give it to the community - not because of any sneaky reasons, just because that's how we believe it can do the most good in the world.
thejosh 12y ago
Running on Ubuntu 14.04, after following the instructions, running "atom" or /usr/local/bin/atom doesn't do anything.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- gberger 12y ago
  Same.
- Andys 12y ago
  Be patient: after a while it segfaults
patrickg 12y ago
Uncaught Error: Atom can only handle files < 2MB, for now. I'd love to use an opensource editor for working on large xml files.
- SoftwareMaven 12y ago
  I've never had a problem opening very large files in Emacs. I would imagine Vim is much the same. I have an 80MB JSON file open in emacs right now.
  - patrickg 12y ago
    That's true. I used to be an emacs fanboy (1) until one day came along textmate with snippets, tabs and "sub major modes" (don't know how to call 'em - take for example php inside html or such). Then I switched to sublime text. Now both editors are stalled... I might switch back to emacs. (1) I've written lot's of elisp code, for example a norton commander clone called evening commander (https://github.com/pgundlach/evening-commander https://github.com/pgundlach/evening-commander)
- jussij 12y ago
  At 2MB that is hardly a large file.
hxrts 12y ago
Can someone comment on whether it's feasible to port Atom to function in-browser? Seems like this + something like Codepen could potentially be an asset to frontend developers.
- CaveTech 12y ago
  It's written in coffee script and runs on webkit. I'd say it's possible but you'd lose some of the deeper OS integrations.
laureny 12y ago
It always makes me chuckle when I see companies trying to ship a product (free or not) and realize a few months later that it's not picking up adoption. Then they decide to open source it in an effort to make it popular but of course, they can't admit that, so they always come up with excuses like "We want the community to benefit from it" or "We really believe in open source", etc... In the end, for most of these products, open sourcing is usually just the last step before the product dies.
- cwyers 12y ago
  That doesn't seem to make sense here, as Atom was still in open beta, and they haven't released the versions for roughly half of their user base yet.[1] 1) https://github.com/blog/69-what-os-do-you-use https://github.com/blog/69-what-os-do-you-use
- eq- 12y ago
  Open sourcing is never the end of a good product.
  - bendersalt 12y ago
    Yep. -Posted From Linux
    - orbifold 12y ago
      I don't think Linux was ever intended as a product.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
chrisabrams 12y ago
Does atom-shell allow for 64 bit node on OS X?
jbigelow76 12y ago
I don't need another editor but this interests me because of the Atom Shell and how that works.
pit 12y ago
Kind of cool that you can view issues all the way back to the beginning: https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/5 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/5 I realize this is inherent to the nature of version control, but it's neat to think about the history as a "Making-Of" Atom.
- devcpp 12y ago
  Also makes me much more trustful about the openness of Atom. Much better than the closed development processes that I usually see from big corporations (e.g Google, Apple, Samsung, EA, at their respective open-source websites).
uger 12y ago
I'm surprised how much memory it takes up.
- pit 12y ago
  Well, it's a web browser after all.
  - k__ 12y ago
    Is it like brackets?
    - pit 12y ago
      I've only barely used either. On the surface, they seem very similar -- folder view on the left, editor tabs up top. This may be irrational, but I never had a great feeling about Brackets because it was an Adobe product.
      - bryan_rasmussen 12y ago
        brackets is open source http://brackets.io/ http://brackets.io/ about this, I use brackets, a lot of it does look like brackets maybe with some ideas taken from light table http://www.lighttable.com/ http://www.lighttable.com/ There's a thread on discuss.atom.io about what distinguishes the two http://discuss.atom.io/t/what-distinguishes-atom-io-from-brackets-io/511/9 http://discuss.atom.io/t/what-distinguishes-atom-io-from-bra... I guess I don't feel atom does enough different from brackets that I can justify switching editor at this point, but if anyone has more to add than was found there I'm interested to hear.
        dvidsilva 12y ago
        brackets have the live edit feature and the snippet editing thing. IMO working with JS/Html/Css doesn't get any better than that.
        pit 12y ago
ing33k 12y ago
nice, trying to install it on Ubuntu 14.04 .
- desipenguin 12y ago
  How did it go ? Easy to build ?
daviddoran 12y ago
I'm delighted to see Atom open sourced. I tried it out a few weeks back and came across a bug where the editor would lock up when a few empty files were created. Then I couldn't dig into the code to fix the issue but now I can.
pwr 12y ago
I'm pretty excited about Atom Shell as it looks like they fixed the different js context problem that node-webkit had. The last time i tried node-webkit i was really annoyed by the sneaky bugs that pushing objects from one context to the other introduced. Thumbs up, Github!
plg 12y ago
are there demos somewhere that show the value added over sublime text or emacs or vim?
- JacksonGariety 12y ago
  > show the value added over emacs never.
pavanky 12y ago
The cloned repo is ~238mb. I can't help but think some of it is not necessary.
- jadeddrag 12y ago
  It's not necessary. The code is under 6MB. Remove the top level .git directory if the size bothers you.
- hamburglar 12y ago
  A cloned Chromium repo is 11GB, last I checked. Not a particularly relevant metric.
hitlin37 12y ago
want, atom with python support for a simpler version of ipython notebook!
digerata 12y ago
I'm still trying to find out why a great company like GitHub would shamelessly copy Sublime Text 2. It's one thing to say we need to build another text editor because nothing out there gives you what you need. But to say we need another text editor and then copy Sublime... What the heck is that? I installed it today for the first time because this was the first time I didn't need to be in a special club to use it. I opened a directory of source that ST opens instantly. This thing took 5 seconds to open. Then when I quit the app, I get an "Editor is not responding." message. Everything feels sluggish. This is progress people!
- georgemcbay 12y ago
  Atom is no more a shameless copy of Sublime Text than Sublime Text is of TextMate. Having said that, I do agree that the sluggishness of many of these "modern" editors (including Sublime Text, which even at ST3 is quite a bit slower at opening large files than it should be) really is quite a shame.
  - digerata 12y ago
    I wish we could post images so you could look at a blind comparison...
  - math0ne 12y ago
    Most text editors look almost exactly the same, my VIM and emacs look almost identical to sublime, and if i wanted i could make it identical.
- greggman 12y ago
  This isn't a copy of sublime. The fact that it effectively runs in a browser opens up all kinds of possibilities. Insert an inline IMG, canvas, webgl, video, svg. I'm hoping to see some amazing extensions from this
- CmonDev 12y ago
  It's hard to avoid copying when implementing a basic notepad type of app with some syntax high-lighting and a trendy colour scheme.
math0ne 12y ago
Ugh.. still mac only....
- rok3 12y ago
  Just follow the instructions in the README on GitHub. Builds and runs fine on Arch Linux. Haven't tried building on a Win machine yet. https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/README.md
  - mediocregopher 12y ago
    What steps did you take to get it running on Arch? I got as far as convincing it to use python2, but then realized I need gnome-keyring, and kind of stopped there. Which keyring package did you install?
    - rok3 12y ago
      Already had extra/gnome-keyring 3.12.0-1 installed.
    - janerik 12y ago
      There are already two packages in the AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/atom-editor/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/atom-editor/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/atom-editor-git/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/atom-editor-git/
- DonPellegrino 12y ago
  You should read the README before whining. Linux and Windows are also supported. https://github.com/atom/atom https://github.com/atom/atom
  - math0ne 12y ago
    I don't know if I would call those build instructions supported. I don't have all day just to try out a new text editor...
kabdib 12y ago
I tried Atom, and it was glacial. The editor I use now (Epsilon) was last significantly rev'd about 8 years ago. It's a fine editor, but I'm starting to look for a replacement (and, oddly, I cannot stand where modern Emacs went). Sublime Text 2 is darned close. If only I could teach it proper bindings of C-U . . .
- Timmmmbob 12y ago
  Not really surprising - the whole idea of web desktop apps is kind of crazy, especially for something that you want to have good performance like a text editor.
- gaigepr 12y ago
  I'm curious what about modern emacs you don't like. Not to argue with you but truly out of curiosity.
  - flyrain 12y ago
    So am I.
  - kabdib 12y ago
    Many of the defaults are wrong. - Toolbars suck - Menus suck - Having Emacs suspend the shell I'm working in sucks - Getting names of files to actually appear as buffers, without extra gorp like a listener window that I don't care about at all is an exercise in frustration ... and more, but I need to find the last .emacs file that I spent half a day hacking up for details (and don't get me started on the geometry nonsense you need to control where Emacs starts up and how big its window is, and how well this plays with environments that have different monitor sizes and . . . oh bog, it can be better). Inevitably someone's going to argue about how Emacs should be used ("you're supposed to get into it and never leave" and similar nonsense), or point out that I can customize away the things I hate. True. But I've been using Emacs since 1979 or so, and it just seems much worse in the last ten years.
    - aaronem 12y ago
rubyn00bie 12y ago
Maybe someone will implement the UI without a Node/CoffeeScript backend? Memory usage has been pretty abysmal in my trials (though we've got some very large repos). I'm definitely with the group that they 'opensourced' this because they had to... I know my entire office went from 'fuck-yeah' to '.... meh' to 'what? yeah, I forgot about that' in about two weeks time. I mean, it's still damn good of 'em I just hope it gets some love. I'd like to see more competition in the space, but right now I have a feeling it's just going to be abandoned before too long then I'll be knocking on the door of ST3 or Vim again.
danielweber 12y ago
The FAQ doesn't tell me what Atom is.
- notatoad 12y ago
  the homepage does. https://atom.io/ https://atom.io/
endijs 12y ago
Installed on Linux Mint. Some minor UI problems here and there. But that's nothing compared to how bad autocomplete is. At least for PHP development it's unusable at all. Because of that even had no intention to check further. But for those who wonder - yes, it works on Linux.
- sspiff 12y ago
  Did you find or compose any kind of build instructions?
  - endijs 12y ago
    There are build instruction for Linux in README. https://github.com/atom/atom https://github.com/atom/atom Plus I had to fix libudev problem with this https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1814#issuecomment-42325331 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1814#issuecomment-423253... Other than that it had no problems to build or launch.
ing33k 12y ago
Yeah, finally got in working on Ubuntu 14.04 , looks good and solid ! not working atm, looks like it makes a POST request to a server every times its launched and the server seems to be down .
ErikRogneby 12y ago
I appreciate knowing the cost of opted in features: "This package added 66ms to startup time."
AceJohnny2 12y ago
Alright, now I need a comparison of how Atom compares to Sublime Text, Light Table and Emacs (and maybe even Vim, but its moded editing makes it a completely different beast).
- allworknoplay 12y ago
  slow, as far as I can tell.
undoware 12y ago
Everyone knows the rules by now. If something awesome comes out that's not FOSS or even only partially FOSS (dual license, etc) just ignore it until it's either cloned or fully opened. Follow this algorithm for an open net. Profit margins get pretty tight tho
- camus2 12y ago
  SublimeText is not opensource,yet it's a success.
jonahx 12y ago
Could someone give the tldr; version of advantages atom has over vim?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
avitzurel 12y ago
IMHO Tom (now gone from the company) always held a strong opinion to open-source ALMOST everything. From the outside, looking at the conversations that took place on Twitter after the initial release, he seemed to have a strong opinion on Atom being the same way, core inside github and rest is open-source. Now that he's gone, that limitation is off and it's open source as it should have been from the get-go. There's absolutely no reason this product won't be open source to the core, the more people actively developing on it the better. Me personally, I haven't used it and I don't see myself using it ever in the future, but it seems like a very nice concept project.
neil_s 12y ago
So still nothing on the homepage or anywhere else explaining why this is something useful compared to existing apps? I can't think of a single USP.
Sekhmet 12y ago
Thanks for sharing this. I received betz access, but I'm using linux. Have to try compile entire Atom to linux!
lrryy 12y ago
Great, still not interested.
DigitalSea 12y ago
I am really stoked for a Windows version, which in turn will mean I will move on from Sublime Text Editor 2 onto Atom. Unless of course Sublime Text Editor 3 comes out before then. Tried Atom on a friends Mac, a really solid editor that I am excited to see what the future holds for it.
krick 12y ago
That + clojurescript and we can have better emacs… can we? I haven't tried it yet, honestly.
timthom2 12y ago
Love it
mckoder 12y ago
I don't get why people keep creating new text editors. Emacs exists, people. And it is a great text editor. These new editors look pretty and do work, but they don't even come close to Emacs. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, why not just take Emacs and add a pretty face to it?
- exadeci 12y ago
  Well emacs last stable was March 11, 2013. I use emacs on my headless servers and it's perfect but if you really want to work with it you loose time. Take any big project you want to open a file from emacs you have to know the exact path, with atom (and sublime text) you just type the name and you get suggestions. Plus you can still use emacs shortcuts if you want. Yeah emacs is good and useful but it's almost 50 years old it's like telling us "why would you want a nexus when the 3310 already exists?".
  - mckoder 12y ago
    No, you take the core of emacs and add a pretty shell around it that adds these features you are talking about. Such as quick way to open files, and so on. There is no need to re-invent core text editing.
ohmygeek 12y ago
Emacs FTW!
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
vfclists 12y ago
When is this insanity going to end? Javascript has been the biggest waste and diversion of programmer talent since computers were invented. Billions of dollars have been wasted trying to fit every square peg there is into a Javascript round hole, and the sh*t still continues. Even after 20 years Javascript UIs can't match stuff done 20 years ago on native UIs. Whatever happened to the notion of cost-benefit analysis? Is there ever going to be some professionalism in the programing profession, if in its current state it can be called a profession? How much effort is the industry going to put into implementing software on the Javascript/HTML combo which is, has been and will always be under-specified for what programmers want to use them for? PS. It seems that every other article on HN relates to an attempt to hack some complicated stuff on top of an ill-suited Javascript/HTML combo. Is there some connection here?
johnchristopher 12y ago
Does anybody have any success building it on Debian Wheezy ?
- hoov 12y ago
  Not exactly what you asked, but I got it working on Debian Jessie just now. I had to install npm from scratch, but other than that it was smooth.
  - johnchristopher 12y ago
    Ah, thank you. Unfortunately messing with npm is a bit of a show stopper for me at the moment.
adefa 12y ago
If anyone is interested, I was able to build a copy of Atom for Windows: http://work.strieber.org/Atom-0.95.0-61fff23be.zip http://work.strieber.org/Atom-0.95.0-61fff23be.zip
- Guillaume86 12y ago
  Thank you! Was waiting for a windows build to give it a go
- PowerGuido87 12y ago
  Thanks. Trying it right now.
- adefa 12y ago
  As more fixes come in and until an official release comes out, I'll compile some updated versions.
- adefa 12y ago
  New Unofficial Atom builds for Windows: http://atom.strieber.org http://atom.strieber.org
helpbygrace 12y ago
I wonder why almost every apps that was introduced at first don't support wide character type system such as CJK. Atom's soft wrap doesn't works well. It seems to count character length in order to split the line.
munro 12y ago
Fun! A few days ago I mentioned I wish Sublime Text could have preview panes, but it only does text. [1] This editor does just that! Unfortunately it's very sluggish. Which also ties back to a comment about another HTML5 text editor. [2] I want to love this editor so bad, but I'll wait until the performance improves. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7696555 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7696555 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7696593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7696593
adefa 12y ago
New Unofficial Atom builds for Windows: http://atom.strieber.org http://atom.strieber.org

914 points by jordn 12y ago

vitaluha 12y ago

How about translating it to other languages?

sergiotapia 12y ago
I'd also like to donate time to translate Atom to spanish.

gberger 12y ago

Hopefully someone can package a Ubuntu build now.

probablycorey 12y ago
https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1814 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1814
andyhmltn 12y ago
Check the README: Apparently you can already do it yourself. I'm just in the process of building a version at the moment on 12.04LTS. Will update
- andyhmltn 12y ago
  Yep, it worked. Took a lot of playing about with it and this: https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1931 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1931 but finally got it building on 12.04LTS
anjanb 12y ago
Also, how about a RHEL package ?
foofoobar 12y ago
It's working under Ubuntu 13.10 here.

donaldguy 12y ago

This is exciting, and bad news for Sublime Text. Though it will be interesting to see if Atom's performance actually gets up there The Atom Shell open sourcing is also interesting ... I wonder if it will lead to a rash of other Chromium-fork-apps

swah 12y ago
Can I run Atom-core on top of Atom-shell like any other app? --- There are builds for atom-shell for Windows and it gives you something that looks like this: http://imgur.com/H0RcGc5 http://imgur.com/H0RcGc5 I haven't understood what you're supposed to do with it yet (I thought it was just a library). OT: Fullscreen and windowing is nicer in Windows... In OSX (@home) everything feels sluggish with the overflow of animations...
- xpaulbettsx 12y ago
  Atom Shell is a runtime environment that you can write your own Node-in-a-web-browser apps against, yeah. Atom-shell is the C++y bits to provide some of the APIs that are available in JS. The docs for Atom Shell are pretty good, have a look at https://github.com/atom/atom-shell/tree/master/docs https://github.com/atom/atom-shell/tree/master/docs to get started
  - swah 12y ago
    Thanks for the explanation. What is not clear to me is if Atom editor is just an app that runs on top of Atom shell.
tyleregeto 12y ago
Its got a _long_ ways to go before sublime has anything to worry about. The plugins and language support Sublime has is its real asset. I'd be happy to make the switch when the feature parity is there, because I'm not too happy with the way Sublime 3 has played out, but that day is a ways off.
- kipple 12y ago

ihuman 12y ago

For anyone who is curious (since there was a tad bit of concern about it in the past), here is a link to the core's license: https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/LICENSE.md https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/LICENSE.md It looks pretty open to me. However, I don't speak legalese, so I may be misunderstanding it.

donaldguy 12y ago
It seems to be a standard MIT License... like the blog entry says
- ihuman 12y ago
  For some reason I accidentally skipped over the 1st sentence of the blog. Thanks for the clarification.
- wging 12y ago
  Seems to be a bug in the MIT License that it doesn't refer to its own name within its text. By contrast the GNU GPL is more easily recognizable.
  - Agathos 12y ago
    Congratulations on making it on to @shit_hn_says! https://twitter.com/shit_hn_says/status/463711610172088320 https://twitter.com/shit_hn_says/status/463711610172088320
unfletch 12y ago
Here's the page for this type of license on GitHub's own Choose a License site: http://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/ http://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/ The legalese is translated into bullet points in the right-hand column.
lukeholder 12y ago
look like regular MIT licence no? >Today, we're excited to announce that we are open-sourcing Atom under the MIT License

brlewis 12y ago

I am now way more interested in atom than I was previously. I think this is going to be a good thing for github.

pachydermic 12y ago

I wonder why it wasn't this way from the get-go... Oh well, at least I'm actually interested in it now. Can't wait for the Linux version to try it out. Pumped that they did the right thing and open-sourced it so that it actually has a chance of becoming widespread, and more importantly, of sticking around for longer than a couple years. Good on you, Atom.io devs

SmileyKeith 12y ago
The instructions for building the linux version are in the readme
- pachydermic 12y ago
  Interesting, thanks for the heads up. Last I heard it was OSX only. I may try this when I get home.
- scope 12y ago
  it would a LOT be better if there's a deb package available, you have to do a lot of tweaking to make node work as `node`, since it's named `nodejs` to avoid package name conflict in Linux now that it's open sourced, am sure it'll take like a second for someone to release the deb package
  - BHSPitMonkey 12y ago
    In the meantime, can't you just symlink or alias that problem away?
    - scope 12y ago
      yep i can and i did, still, I'll like it far more if it `just works` without me having to open the terminal and install node, npm, make link of nodejs...
  - anti-thought 12y ago
    That (which can be fixed somewhat easily by [1]), and they rely on version >= v0.10.* which is gross as only v0.6.9 is provided by the default Ubuntu 12.04 repos (which are what is recommended by their README). [1] - `ln -s $(which nodejs) ~/bin/node`

jwcrux 12y ago

This is fantastic news! > As Emacs and Vim have demonstrated over the past three decades, if you want to build a thriving, long-lasting community around a text editor, it has to be open source. I agree whole-heartedly. In fact, I don't believe that editors like Sublime Text would have such a large following if not for the extended "free-trial" functionality. It will be exciting to see where this project goes, and I think open-sourcing the rest of the editor was a great move.

1qaz2wsx3edc 12y ago
Agreed, amazing news. This is the announcement I've been waiting for. I've long been worried that with a closed source core, the editor would of fallen prey to the same issues that plague closed source editors. With that out of the way now, I'm excited for what atom will become.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- jaegerpicker 12y ago
  He literally addresses Sublime in his comment.
pytrin 12y ago
You're confusing "free" in pricing with "free" in freedom. A free trial creates a completely different type of community than free and open code. GitHub could have just provided a closed binary for free if they wanted to go the Sublime route.
- ubercow13 12y ago
  I'm pretty sure he's not confusing anything

matthewmacleod 12y ago

Well, I'm thoroughly impressed and a little bit embarrassed about beating up on Atom only yesterday :)

jdmichal 12y ago
You should only be embarrassed if you continue to beat up on it in light of the new information. Otherwise, if your arguments were correct and valid at the time, there's no reason to be embarrassed.
- ChrisGaudreau 12y ago
  Well said. This is an insight rarely realized.

fhinson 12y ago

Really great news for Atom. Upon its initial launch, most of the criticism around it pertained to it not being open source. I think we can certainly expect to see its growth overtake that of Sublime Text, and I'm interested to see how the community interest will stack up against other open source editors like Light Table. Hopefully Atom may join the legendary ranks of Vim and Emacs.

edwintorok 12y ago

Perhaps the blogpost should first mention what Atom is. The first time I've heard about Atom was here: https://medium.com/p/433852f4b4d1 https://medium.com/p/433852f4b4d1

DanWaterworth 12y ago
Perhaps the blogpost should first mention what Atom is. +1, an about page wouldn't go amiss either. I still don't know what it is. [edit] Wow, downvoted. I just want to know what it is by visiting the website quickly. It's not a lot to ask.
- Kequc 12y ago
  It's strange how that blog post doesn't seem to link to Atom. https://atom.io/ https://atom.io/
Fasebook 12y ago
Just Another Javascript Layer to Pharm data.

sergiotapia 12y ago

Masivo props to Github. They just almost assuredly made this editor long-term. What was once a cool tech-demo is now probably going to go mainstream for everybody. Wow. I just can't imagine a behemoth like Github not injecting itself into Atom for the better.

davexunit 12y ago

> As Emacs and Vim have demonstrated over the past three decades, if you want to build a thriving, long-lasting community around a text editor, it has to be open source. Using a free software license is a big improvement, but I wish that they used a copyleft license like the GNU GPLv3. Inevitably, we'll see proprietary extensions and "pro" versions. Strong copyleft is important for the freedom of end users.

poolpool 12y ago
God forbid people want to get paid for their hard work and effort bringing something new into the world.
- p8952 12y ago
  I forgot that the first line of the GPL reads "YOU MAY NOT SELL THIS FOR PROFIT". It's a shame there are no billion dollar companies based around the GPL... /s
  - jussij 12y ago
    > It's a shame there are no billion dollar companies based around the GPL... /s There is and it is called Google. It's a champion for Open Source and seems to use Open Source software almost exclusively across their entire organisation.
    - Mikeb85 12y ago
      The /s indicates sarcasm. Of course there is Google, Amazon, Red Hat, SUSE, even IBM uses a lot of GPL software...
      - pjmlp 12y ago
        All server software. No one makes money from FOSS desktop software.
        12y ago

mempko 12y ago

Congradulations to the github team for releasing atom with an open source license. I hope future projects are free software instead of open source. EDIT: I fudge fingered this. I meant copy left license. MIT is a free software license.

icebraining 12y ago
MIT licensed software is free software. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#Expat https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#Expat
- mempko 12y ago
  You are absolutely correct. I meant to say copy left license. I stayed up way to late and woke up way to early. They do say being tired is similar to being drunk... ugh.

jordn 12y ago

Interestingly, Tom Preston-Werner (former CEO of Github) said in February that Atom wouldn't be fully open-source: “Atom won't be closed source, but it won't be open source either. It will be somewhere inbetween, making it easy for us to charge for Atom while still making the source available under a restrictive license so you can see how everything works. We haven't finalized exactly how this will work yet. We will have full details ready for the official launch.” - Tom Preston-Werner, 27 Feb 2014 http://discuss.atom.io/t/why-is-atom-closed-source/82/9 http://discuss.atom.io/t/why-is-atom-closed-source/82/9 There was a HN discussion about this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7310017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7310017

jdmichal 12y ago
Is there any chance this change of heart has to do with his departure? Perhaps the team always wanted to commit to being fully open-source, and he was the blocker.
- tomp 12y ago
  Or perhaps GitHub wants to salvage their reputation in the Tech circles by doing "something good" without too much business loss (selling text editors probably isn't very good business).
  - vdaniuk 12y ago
    Salvage their reputation? Are you talking about that inappropriate behavior by one of the cofounders incident? Because if you are, consider that you may be significantly overestimating its influence on the elusive "tech circles".
  - Jare 12y ago
    GitHub's reputation in tech circles is extremely good. Don't confuse the noise with the signal.
    - afternooner 12y ago

pdknsk 12y ago

I followed the steps, but it didn't download. $ git clone git@github.com:atom/atom.git Cloning into 'atom'... The authenticity of host 'github.com (192.30.252.129)' can't be established. RSA key fingerprint is 16:27:ac:a5:76:28:2d:36:63:1b:56:4d:eb:df:a6:48. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? y Please type 'yes' or 'no': yes Warning: Permanently added 'github.com,192.30.252.129' (RSA) to the list of known hosts. Permission denied (publickey). fatal: Could not read from remote repository. This works. $ git clone https://github.com/atom/atom

prezjordan 12y ago
Looks like their README reflects the fact that anyone who could see the repo could also push to it. You should submit a PR :) EDIT: I am mistaken. I thought cloning git@ meant you could read/write from it (aka allowed to push). Turns out it's just a public key thing. Comment above me is correct.
- meemo 12y ago
  I think it assumes that you have a github account. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing considering who they are.
nandhp 12y ago
> Permission denied (publickey). You need to add your public key to your github account. https://github.com/settings/ssh https://github.com/settings/ssh
- bulatb 12y ago
  Or clone with https.

krautsourced 12y ago

I wonder if this was partially because they considered the effort involved to develop a Windows and Linux version, plus the amount to get the performance where people would like it, and then decided it's not worth it? At least commercially.

rayiner 12y ago

I'm excited to see all these new IDE projects, but have we pretty much given up on having a good, integrated debugger?

wmil 12y ago
I think we have. Debuggers are highly language specific. It's just easier to have a separate debugger for each language. I think it'd be nice if some of the IDEs gave up on forcing everything into their project structure. There's a real market for stand alone visual debuggers that don't try to manage your entire project.
- saurik 12y ago
  But that was the whole point of an IDE: it integrated the development environment, piecing together the editor, the compiler, and the debugger, taking advantage of intimate knowledge of the specific targets. Why are we suddenly calling a text editor an "IDE"?
  - jussij 12y ago
    > Why are we suddenly calling a text editor an "IDE"? I suspect because lots of developers actually use those text editors as their main development environment. So they have the D and the E parts of that equation covered. Also since these editors tend to be highly configurable, with a bit tweaking the user can make the editor do a lot of the I as well.
    - saurik 12y ago
      I also use a text editor as my primary development tool, yet I do not call it an IDE. I repeat: the whole point of an IDE is to be a truly integrated development environment, piecing together the editor, the compiler, and the debugger, taking advantage of intimate knowledge of the specific targets. If you don't have an integrated debugger, you are not using an IDE. There is no shame in that, but it still doesn't make any sense to be calling the tool an IDE unless it, well, is an IDE. It seems like the more useful thought is then "people seem to have stopped using IDEs as much", not "IDEs have given up on integrating features like the compiler and the debugger"... if you aren't integrating the compiler and the debugger, we already have a word for that: text editor.

prezjordan 12y ago

I'm excited to compare atom-shell with node-webkit. I wonder if any big players will use it.

anjanb 12y ago

I look forward to getting a RHEL/CentOS 6.x(6.3) package soon.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

jhh 12y ago

I wonder if the way that atom was built is or can turn into a good way to build modern cross platform desktop apps while employing web technologies. Does anyone have any input or actual experience with this?

mmgutz 12y ago
If you know node backend and web front-end, there are at least two options right now: For a self-contained, deployable desktop application use `node-webkit`. It is basically chromium + embedded node.js. From what I'm reading, atom-shell is similar to node-webkit. There are a few other `node-webkit` like projects on github. For lighter deployments, where your audience already has chrome and node.js installed, try `node-chrome`. It's a skeleton to run a chrome packaged app locally which communicates over websockets to a node.js service you build. Both of these are good options if your UI, notifications can be contained in HTML. Challenges arise when you want to use OS specific integrated menus, growls/notifications, tooltips, etc. Node-webkit may have addressed most of these by now.
- jhh 12y ago
  wow, node-webkit has +12k stars on github. I must have been living under a rock.

ruswick 12y ago

This is an interesting reversal for Github. The original FAQ implied that Github would try to market Atom commercially. I'm curious as to what made them change their mind.

jglovier 12y ago
>The original FAQ implied that Github would try to market Atom commercially. We were leaving all options open during the beta. The adoption rate was incredible (contrary to suggestions to the contrary), and in the end the Atom team decided the best thing GitHub could do with Atom is give it to the community - not because of any sneaky reasons, just because that's how we believe it can do the most good in the world.

thejosh 12y ago

Running on Ubuntu 14.04, after following the instructions, running "atom" or /usr/local/bin/atom doesn't do anything.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
gberger 12y ago
Same.
Andys 12y ago
Be patient: after a while it segfaults

patrickg 12y ago

Uncaught Error: Atom can only handle files < 2MB, for now. I'd love to use an opensource editor for working on large xml files.

SoftwareMaven 12y ago
I've never had a problem opening very large files in Emacs. I would imagine Vim is much the same. I have an 80MB JSON file open in emacs right now.
- patrickg 12y ago
  That's true. I used to be an emacs fanboy (1) until one day came along textmate with snippets, tabs and "sub major modes" (don't know how to call 'em - take for example php inside html or such). Then I switched to sublime text. Now both editors are stalled... I might switch back to emacs. (1) I've written lot's of elisp code, for example a norton commander clone called evening commander (https://github.com/pgundlach/evening-commander https://github.com/pgundlach/evening-commander)
jussij 12y ago
At 2MB that is hardly a large file.

hxrts 12y ago

Can someone comment on whether it's feasible to port Atom to function in-browser? Seems like this + something like Codepen could potentially be an asset to frontend developers.

CaveTech 12y ago
It's written in coffee script and runs on webkit. I'd say it's possible but you'd lose some of the deeper OS integrations.

laureny 12y ago

It always makes me chuckle when I see companies trying to ship a product (free or not) and realize a few months later that it's not picking up adoption. Then they decide to open source it in an effort to make it popular but of course, they can't admit that, so they always come up with excuses like "We want the community to benefit from it" or "We really believe in open source", etc... In the end, for most of these products, open sourcing is usually just the last step before the product dies.

cwyers 12y ago
That doesn't seem to make sense here, as Atom was still in open beta, and they haven't released the versions for roughly half of their user base yet.[1] 1) https://github.com/blog/69-what-os-do-you-use https://github.com/blog/69-what-os-do-you-use
eq- 12y ago
Open sourcing is never the end of a good product.
- bendersalt 12y ago
  Yep. -Posted From Linux
  - orbifold 12y ago
    I don't think Linux was ever intended as a product.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

chrisabrams 12y ago

Does atom-shell allow for 64 bit node on OS X?

jbigelow76 12y ago

I don't need another editor but this interests me because of the Atom Shell and how that works.

pit 12y ago

Kind of cool that you can view issues all the way back to the beginning: https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/5 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/5 I realize this is inherent to the nature of version control, but it's neat to think about the history as a "Making-Of" Atom.

devcpp 12y ago
Also makes me much more trustful about the openness of Atom. Much better than the closed development processes that I usually see from big corporations (e.g Google, Apple, Samsung, EA, at their respective open-source websites).

uger 12y ago

I'm surprised how much memory it takes up.

pit 12y ago
Well, it's a web browser after all.
- k__ 12y ago
  Is it like brackets?
  - pit 12y ago
    I've only barely used either. On the surface, they seem very similar -- folder view on the left, editor tabs up top. This may be irrational, but I never had a great feeling about Brackets because it was an Adobe product.
    - bryan_rasmussen 12y ago
      brackets is open source http://brackets.io/ http://brackets.io/ about this, I use brackets, a lot of it does look like brackets maybe with some ideas taken from light table http://www.lighttable.com/ http://www.lighttable.com/ There's a thread on discuss.atom.io about what distinguishes the two http://discuss.atom.io/t/what-distinguishes-atom-io-from-brackets-io/511/9 http://discuss.atom.io/t/what-distinguishes-atom-io-from-bra... I guess I don't feel atom does enough different from brackets that I can justify switching editor at this point, but if anyone has more to add than was found there I'm interested to hear.
      - dvidsilva 12y ago
        brackets have the live edit feature and the snippet editing thing. IMO working with JS/Html/Css doesn't get any better than that.
      - pit 12y ago

ing33k 12y ago

nice, trying to install it on Ubuntu 14.04 .

desipenguin 12y ago
How did it go ? Easy to build ?

daviddoran 12y ago

I'm delighted to see Atom open sourced. I tried it out a few weeks back and came across a bug where the editor would lock up when a few empty files were created. Then I couldn't dig into the code to fix the issue but now I can.

pwr 12y ago

I'm pretty excited about Atom Shell as it looks like they fixed the different js context problem that node-webkit had. The last time i tried node-webkit i was really annoyed by the sneaky bugs that pushing objects from one context to the other introduced. Thumbs up, Github!

plg 12y ago

are there demos somewhere that show the value added over sublime text or emacs or vim?

JacksonGariety 12y ago
> show the value added over emacs never.

pavanky 12y ago

The cloned repo is ~238mb. I can't help but think some of it is not necessary.

jadeddrag 12y ago
It's not necessary. The code is under 6MB. Remove the top level .git directory if the size bothers you.
hamburglar 12y ago
A cloned Chromium repo is 11GB, last I checked. Not a particularly relevant metric.

hitlin37 12y ago

want, atom with python support for a simpler version of ipython notebook!

digerata 12y ago

I'm still trying to find out why a great company like GitHub would shamelessly copy Sublime Text 2. It's one thing to say we need to build another text editor because nothing out there gives you what you need. But to say we need another text editor and then copy Sublime... What the heck is that? I installed it today for the first time because this was the first time I didn't need to be in a special club to use it. I opened a directory of source that ST opens instantly. This thing took 5 seconds to open. Then when I quit the app, I get an "Editor is not responding." message. Everything feels sluggish. This is progress people!

georgemcbay 12y ago
Atom is no more a shameless copy of Sublime Text than Sublime Text is of TextMate. Having said that, I do agree that the sluggishness of many of these "modern" editors (including Sublime Text, which even at ST3 is quite a bit slower at opening large files than it should be) really is quite a shame.
- digerata 12y ago
  I wish we could post images so you could look at a blind comparison...
- math0ne 12y ago
  Most text editors look almost exactly the same, my VIM and emacs look almost identical to sublime, and if i wanted i could make it identical.
greggman 12y ago
This isn't a copy of sublime. The fact that it effectively runs in a browser opens up all kinds of possibilities. Insert an inline IMG, canvas, webgl, video, svg. I'm hoping to see some amazing extensions from this
CmonDev 12y ago
It's hard to avoid copying when implementing a basic notepad type of app with some syntax high-lighting and a trendy colour scheme.

math0ne 12y ago

Ugh.. still mac only....

rok3 12y ago
Just follow the instructions in the README on GitHub. Builds and runs fine on Arch Linux. Haven't tried building on a Win machine yet. https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/README.md
- mediocregopher 12y ago
  What steps did you take to get it running on Arch? I got as far as convincing it to use python2, but then realized I need gnome-keyring, and kind of stopped there. Which keyring package did you install?
  - rok3 12y ago
    Already had extra/gnome-keyring 3.12.0-1 installed.
  - janerik 12y ago
    There are already two packages in the AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/atom-editor/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/atom-editor/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/atom-editor-git/ https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/atom-editor-git/
DonPellegrino 12y ago
You should read the README before whining. Linux and Windows are also supported. https://github.com/atom/atom https://github.com/atom/atom
- math0ne 12y ago
  I don't know if I would call those build instructions supported. I don't have all day just to try out a new text editor...

kabdib 12y ago

I tried Atom, and it was glacial. The editor I use now (Epsilon) was last significantly rev'd about 8 years ago. It's a fine editor, but I'm starting to look for a replacement (and, oddly, I cannot stand where modern Emacs went). Sublime Text 2 is darned close. If only I could teach it proper bindings of C-U . . .

Timmmmbob 12y ago
Not really surprising - the whole idea of web desktop apps is kind of crazy, especially for something that you want to have good performance like a text editor.
gaigepr 12y ago
I'm curious what about modern emacs you don't like. Not to argue with you but truly out of curiosity.
- flyrain 12y ago
  So am I.
- kabdib 12y ago
  Many of the defaults are wrong. - Toolbars suck - Menus suck - Having Emacs suspend the shell I'm working in sucks - Getting names of files to actually appear as buffers, without extra gorp like a listener window that I don't care about at all is an exercise in frustration ... and more, but I need to find the last .emacs file that I spent half a day hacking up for details (and don't get me started on the geometry nonsense you need to control where Emacs starts up and how big its window is, and how well this plays with environments that have different monitor sizes and . . . oh bog, it can be better). Inevitably someone's going to argue about how Emacs should be used ("you're supposed to get into it and never leave" and similar nonsense), or point out that I can customize away the things I hate. True. But I've been using Emacs since 1979 or so, and it just seems much worse in the last ten years.
  - aaronem 12y ago

rubyn00bie 12y ago

Maybe someone will implement the UI without a Node/CoffeeScript backend? Memory usage has been pretty abysmal in my trials (though we've got some very large repos). I'm definitely with the group that they 'opensourced' this because they had to... I know my entire office went from 'fuck-yeah' to '.... meh' to 'what? yeah, I forgot about that' in about two weeks time. I mean, it's still damn good of 'em I just hope it gets some love. I'd like to see more competition in the space, but right now I have a feeling it's just going to be abandoned before too long then I'll be knocking on the door of ST3 or Vim again.

danielweber 12y ago

The FAQ doesn't tell me what Atom is.

notatoad 12y ago
the homepage does. https://atom.io/ https://atom.io/

endijs 12y ago

Installed on Linux Mint. Some minor UI problems here and there. But that's nothing compared to how bad autocomplete is. At least for PHP development it's unusable at all. Because of that even had no intention to check further. But for those who wonder - yes, it works on Linux.

sspiff 12y ago
Did you find or compose any kind of build instructions?
- endijs 12y ago
  There are build instruction for Linux in README. https://github.com/atom/atom https://github.com/atom/atom Plus I had to fix libudev problem with this https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1814#issuecomment-42325331 https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/1814#issuecomment-423253... Other than that it had no problems to build or launch.

ing33k 12y ago

Yeah, finally got in working on Ubuntu 14.04 , looks good and solid ! not working atm, looks like it makes a POST request to a server every times its launched and the server seems to be down .

ErikRogneby 12y ago

I appreciate knowing the cost of opted in features: "This package added 66ms to startup time."

AceJohnny2 12y ago

Alright, now I need a comparison of how Atom compares to Sublime Text, Light Table and Emacs (and maybe even Vim, but its moded editing makes it a completely different beast).

allworknoplay 12y ago
slow, as far as I can tell.

undoware 12y ago

Everyone knows the rules by now. If something awesome comes out that's not FOSS or even only partially FOSS (dual license, etc) just ignore it until it's either cloned or fully opened. Follow this algorithm for an open net. Profit margins get pretty tight tho

camus2 12y ago
SublimeText is not opensource,yet it's a success.

jonahx 12y ago

Could someone give the tldr; version of advantages atom has over vim?

deleted 12y ago
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avitzurel 12y ago

IMHO Tom (now gone from the company) always held a strong opinion to open-source ALMOST everything. From the outside, looking at the conversations that took place on Twitter after the initial release, he seemed to have a strong opinion on Atom being the same way, core inside github and rest is open-source. Now that he's gone, that limitation is off and it's open source as it should have been from the get-go. There's absolutely no reason this product won't be open source to the core, the more people actively developing on it the better. Me personally, I haven't used it and I don't see myself using it ever in the future, but it seems like a very nice concept project.

neil_s 12y ago

So still nothing on the homepage or anywhere else explaining why this is something useful compared to existing apps? I can't think of a single USP.

Sekhmet 12y ago

Thanks for sharing this. I received betz access, but I'm using linux. Have to try compile entire Atom to linux!

lrryy 12y ago

Great, still not interested.

DigitalSea 12y ago

I am really stoked for a Windows version, which in turn will mean I will move on from Sublime Text Editor 2 onto Atom. Unless of course Sublime Text Editor 3 comes out before then. Tried Atom on a friends Mac, a really solid editor that I am excited to see what the future holds for it.

krick 12y ago

That + clojurescript and we can have better emacs… can we? I haven't tried it yet, honestly.

timthom2 12y ago

Love it

mckoder 12y ago

I don't get why people keep creating new text editors. Emacs exists, people. And it is a great text editor. These new editors look pretty and do work, but they don't even come close to Emacs. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, why not just take Emacs and add a pretty face to it?

exadeci 12y ago
Well emacs last stable was March 11, 2013. I use emacs on my headless servers and it's perfect but if you really want to work with it you loose time. Take any big project you want to open a file from emacs you have to know the exact path, with atom (and sublime text) you just type the name and you get suggestions. Plus you can still use emacs shortcuts if you want. Yeah emacs is good and useful but it's almost 50 years old it's like telling us "why would you want a nexus when the 3310 already exists?".
- mckoder 12y ago
  No, you take the core of emacs and add a pretty shell around it that adds these features you are talking about. Such as quick way to open files, and so on. There is no need to re-invent core text editing.

ohmygeek 12y ago

Emacs FTW!

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

vfclists 12y ago

When is this insanity going to end? Javascript has been the biggest waste and diversion of programmer talent since computers were invented. Billions of dollars have been wasted trying to fit every square peg there is into a Javascript round hole, and the sh*t still continues. Even after 20 years Javascript UIs can't match stuff done 20 years ago on native UIs. Whatever happened to the notion of cost-benefit analysis? Is there ever going to be some professionalism in the programing profession, if in its current state it can be called a profession? How much effort is the industry going to put into implementing software on the Javascript/HTML combo which is, has been and will always be under-specified for what programmers want to use them for? PS. It seems that every other article on HN relates to an attempt to hack some complicated stuff on top of an ill-suited Javascript/HTML combo. Is there some connection here?

johnchristopher 12y ago

Does anybody have any success building it on Debian Wheezy ?

hoov 12y ago
Not exactly what you asked, but I got it working on Debian Jessie just now. I had to install npm from scratch, but other than that it was smooth.
- johnchristopher 12y ago
  Ah, thank you. Unfortunately messing with npm is a bit of a show stopper for me at the moment.

adefa 12y ago

If anyone is interested, I was able to build a copy of Atom for Windows: http://work.strieber.org/Atom-0.95.0-61fff23be.zip http://work.strieber.org/Atom-0.95.0-61fff23be.zip

Guillaume86 12y ago
Thank you! Was waiting for a windows build to give it a go
PowerGuido87 12y ago
Thanks. Trying it right now.
adefa 12y ago
As more fixes come in and until an official release comes out, I'll compile some updated versions.
adefa 12y ago
New Unofficial Atom builds for Windows: http://atom.strieber.org http://atom.strieber.org

helpbygrace 12y ago

I wonder why almost every apps that was introduced at first don't support wide character type system such as CJK. Atom's soft wrap doesn't works well. It seems to count character length in order to split the line.

munro 12y ago

Fun! A few days ago I mentioned I wish Sublime Text could have preview panes, but it only does text. [1] This editor does just that! Unfortunately it's very sluggish. Which also ties back to a comment about another HTML5 text editor. [2] I want to love this editor so bad, but I'll wait until the performance improves. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7696555 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7696555 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7696593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7696593

adefa 12y ago

New Unofficial Atom builds for Windows: http://atom.strieber.org http://atom.strieber.org