5 reasons to use the Atom text editor

Atom is a comprehensive environment that can accomplish tasks from basic to complex, for users from beginners to veterans. Beautiful open source text editors are pretty common these days, between Adobes Brackets, Microsofts VSCode, and GitHubs Atom. Each of these seem to offer similar experiences: a modern interface, easily installable plugins, and a big brand-name sponsor. And theyre all actually really good. So what sets Atom apart from any other hyper-modern text editor? Or from a classic old editor like Vim or Emacs?

Ive used lots of text editors, and upon reflection, I have to admit that once youve seen one text editor, youve basically seen them all. When judging an editors efficacy, 80% of the requirements are satisfied as long as it does one thing: edit text. The other 20% are bonus conveniences, extra gizmos, and fanciful features. Theyre nice to have but hardly essential.

I often come back to Atom, though, because, as a user of open source, I have the luxury of using an application just because I can. Heres what I like about Atom.

Beginner-friendly:

One of my favorite things about Atom is that it feels pretty normal. I can install Atom on anyones computer and theyre off and typing in no time. No new keyboard shortcuts to learn, no serious deviations from user interface conventions. If I take a few minutes to show them a few power features of the application, then theyre quickly empowered to install new plugins and discover useful features they enjoy.

Its just different enough to feel unique but safe enough to trick people into believing (and rightly so) they can use it. Thats a hard line to walk, but Atom manages it, and I appreciate it for that.

Great extensions:

When most requirements have been filled as soon as you launch the application, a major factor in selling an open source text editor is its extensions. My habitual editor is GNU Emacs, which has a mind-boggling array of extensions so versatile that they can provide everything from an email client to a video game. Thats a hard act to top, and to be honest, Ive yet to see the editor that can. It shows how important extensions can be, though, and Atom has a nice set of plugins.

There are extensions to add syntax highlighting for languages and formats, to add dynamic linting, and to integrate debuggers, runtime environments, video and music player controls, and much more.

Easy theming:

Atom makes generating your own style as easy as styling a website, so if youre competent with CSS, you can make your own Atom theme. To create your own theme, navigate to the Package menu. If you dont see a Package menu, press the Alt key first to reveal the top menu bar. In the Package menu, hover over Package Generator and then select Generate Atom Syntax Theme. This opens a new project called my-theme-syntax by default. You can name it whatever you want, but it should end in -syntax according to Atom convention.

In your new theme project, locate these files: base.less, colors.less, and syntax-variables.less. These define how special keywords, and even background and foreground colors, are themed when your syntax is active. Because they all inherit values from a common template, its pretty easy to hack on.