Biggest pain point? Figuring out which additional packages need to be installed when starting from scratch.įor example, I like minimap to help me visually skip to parts of a file. In general, everything in Atom is rather smooth. The package manager is installed by default and to make things even better, all packages are hosted on Github.Īt the time of writing, they had a whopping 6,452 packages and themes available! Packages are so fundamental to Atom, that core features like Tree View and Settings View are simply pre-installed packages. Let's start by reviewing its main features: PackagesĪbility to add additional features to an edit is very important, and this is an area that Atom shines at. AtomĪ hackable text editor for the 21st CenturyĪtom is a relative newcomer to the world of text editors but it's gained huge momentum since it was first released in 2014. That said, I've tried to be as objective as possible. I'm someone who writes for the web (JS, CSS, HTML, etc.) using Sublime for Mac, so my perspective is a bit skewed towards what I'm used to. **Īfter reading the list of pros and cons, I hope you will have enough information to make a choice that best fits your needs.ĭisclaimer: As with any comparison, some of these views are subjective and are mostly based on my personal preferences. While a straightforward answer to the 'what is the best text editor for developers?' question doesn't exist, in this post, I will share with you a side by side comparison between four of most popular ones out there: **Atom, Sublime, Visual Studio Code, and Vim. You could also consider using IDLE, python’s built-in text editor as an alternative that requires no additional software.With so many programming text editors out there today, the seemingly simple task of choosing one suddenly becomes daunting and overwhelming. I decided to compare the apt installed package size of some popular editors. First, I installed Atom, Emacs, Sublime, VS Code and Vim using the Ubuntu 16.04 terminal. I’m also looking to minimize disk space required. In this case, I want a light-weight, responsive editor with no lag. You’ll want to choose a text editor based on how it suits your own needs. I’m also getting low on disk space, which may be a related issue.

Keystrokes and mouse movements were lagging and slowing my coding down. Lately, I’ve noticed my Atom text editor was bogging down on my Chromebook running Ubuntu 16.04. The text editor is a core tool for writing software.

Atom python text editor