June 06, 2024
Atom: an IDE for the web developer
For the web developer, one of their most important tools is their text editor or integrated development environment (IDE). Today we present Atom, one of the most successful IDEs of the moment.
What is Atom?
Atom is an open-source code editor for macOS, Linux, and Windows with support for plug-ins written in Node.js, embedding Git Control, developed by GitHub.
The IDE consists of a desktop application built using web technologies. Most of the packages are open-source software and are built and maintained by its community. Atom is based on Electron (formerly known as Atom Shell), a framework that allows cross-platform desktop applications using Chromium and Node.js. It is written in CoffeeScript and Less. It can also be used as an integrated development environment (IDE).
Atom released its beta version 1.0 in 2015. Its developers call it a "hackable text editor for the 21st century".
What languages does Atom support?
Atom is compatible with all these languages: HTML, CSS, Less, Sass, GitHub, C/C++, C#, Va, Java, Objective-C, Javascript, JSON, CoffeeScript, Python, PHP, Ruby, Shell Script, Clojure, Perl, Git, Property List (Apple), TOML, XML, YAML, Mustache, Julia & SQL.
Notable features of Atom
Extra functionalities (Packages)
This is one of the areas where Atom particularly excels. With the "package manager" installed by default, we can easily install and uninstall almost any imaginable function, as today more than 6500 modification packages are available.
Integration with Git
Atom has been developed by members of the GitHub platform, and this is noticeable when working with it. Our Atom project will automatically synchronize with the Git repository, and we will see at all times if it is in the same version as our repository or in which documents there are divergences.
Customization
Atom has a fully editable document where we can adjust the work style to our most detailed preferences. From "convert tabs to spaces" and vice versa to "automatically save when losing focus on the file".
Disadvantages of Atom and conclusion
One of the few problems with Atom is its performance, as it can sometimes be a bit slow. When opening a file or navigating between different tabs, the reaction time can be a bit longer than desired, and that, when we are in the middle of a work streak, can be annoying.
Even so, Atom is a very good tool that, despite this slight inconvenience, offers a lot of potential and greatly facilitates the work of the web developer.
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