Ask HN: Is the Atom good enough to use?

Hi HN.

I'm using the WebStorm(or IntelliJ) and the Sublime Text for JavaScript(Node.js, React...) development.

And I tried to use Atom when Atom started the closed beta test, but it was not good for use. Because it was too slow and unstable on my development environment.(OSX, MacBookPro Retina 15 2013) So I forgot about it.

Few months ago, I found out about the Nuclide from Facebook. But it was based on Atom. So I didn't interest about it. However, recently I have to develop many things with React, and I felt a little lacking with WebStorm's ES6 and React supports. So I installed Atom and Nuclide to my environments(El Capitan on same MacPook and Ubuntu 15.10 on Desktop) and tried to use it again. But it still sucks for me... It uses too many CPU resources, and interactions are too slow.

Does it happen only for me?

Many people tell about that it is good IDE. But for me not. I really want to use Atom because my favorite language is the JavaScript, and I'll use the React more and more. However, for now, WebStrom is the best tool for me, and ES6 supports also getting better.

I'm just wondering how peoples think about it. Is it good for you?

For me, there are no noticeable performance problems. It boots up in about 2 seconds, search feels just as fast as Sublime. I use it every day.

This is on a 2013 Macbook Air.

Stick to Sublime Text and/or Intellij. I prefer Sublime Text on smaller, front-end things due to speed while Intellij on larger, full-stack projects due to robust and consistent tools (like using the same debugger pane for Java, PHP and JavaScript projects, lesser cognitive burden). Both have a wide range of plugins to choose from.

> Many people tell about that it is good IDE

Everyone has their "favorites" but your mileage may vary.

> I really want to use Atom because my favorite language is the JavaScript

This is being "hipster" - avoid this behavior at all costs. Choose the most efficient tool for the job, not the most famous nor because you're sticking to it religiously. If you prefer writing Java with Vim or Notepad and you're efficient with it, there's nothing wrong with doing so. IDE has nothing to do with the language you use, although some package tools that make them language-specific. But then again, nothing prevents me from writing Java with Vim, or Notepad, or PHPStorm.

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Under the hood, Atom is just HTML, CSS and JS - and we all know that these guys are terribly slower than native. I've used VS Code by Microsoft, which is based on Electron, which is based on Atom and even that is terrible. I've also used Slap editor, a Vim-ish looking, Sublime-text editor on the command-line running on Node.js and it's also terrible.

Bottom-line: Use what's more efficient, not what's famous.

Atom is excellent if your primary language is JS. It is slower than sublime in my experience but not dramatically. Ofcourse, I am not opening 500mb files etc so if you have those requirements then you are probably best sticking with the current setup

I've been using atom exclusively for the last 3 months after having used IntelliJ for years. I would say yes, it is good enough, but understand that batteries are not included. You need to configure it to suit your needs.

I will say it sucks compared to vim for large files. Maybe that's due to my plugins.

But if it doesn't work for you don't use it. Webstorm offers a lot more out of the box. Or just learn Vim