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Atom was archived today

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Re: Atom was archived today

#21

Post by ddhhyy »

I think the Atom editor + Hydrogen plugin for running interactive Python sessions inline with the code is still unmatched by anything available in VS Code. This setup is what I migrated to when I ditched Matlab for the "scientific Python" stack, and I'm still here.

Multiple concurrent kernels, the ability to connect any .py file to any running kernel, sharing variables and imports across multple .py files, inline matplotlib output that persists on-screen and inline with the code even when running other code cells... the list goes on. I'm really fond of this setup. I use it daily--it's an essential component of my day job--and intend to do so for the foreseeable future. VS Code does seem to be the way of the future but there have just been too many friction points for me to leave Atom.

Re: Atom was archived today

#22

Post by dcchambers »

brundolf wrote: post #13

To add to everything else people are reminiscing about, here's Atom's very fun announcement trailer from 7 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7aEiVwBAdk

In general the marketing and branding of Atom was awesome. The retro-futuristic design worked well with the idea of bringing a text editor into the 21st century. I love that they call their docs the 'flight manual.' It will be missed.

Re: Atom was archived today

#23

Post by philliphaydon »

umvi wrote: post #11
p-e-w wrote: post #7

Sad to see this go. I was an early adopter of Atom, and I wrote two extensions for it, one of which while it was still in beta. The Atom developers made some technology choices that in retrospect were ill-advised, CoffeeScript being the worst of them and splitting everything into dozens of packages a close second. They tried to backpedal on both of these later on, but by that time VSCode, with its far superior engine…

People hate on electron, but it's a pretty amazing piece of tech if you ask me. I can turn a browser game into a steam game with basically no effort which is nice because browsers change over time and electron helps you get a working offline snapshot of something you created.

> People hate on electron, but it's a pretty amazing piece of tech if you ask me.

It really does come down to how people build on top of it.

I tried opening a 2gb log file in Atom and it took like 10 minutes before crashing.

VSCode on the other hand, while a bit slow, opened it and I could search quickly and scroll it without any issue at all.

That was what caused me to switch.

Re: Atom was archived today

#25

Post by dcchambers »

I resisted switching to VS Code for a long time because I far preferred the UX and design of Atom, but I eventually caved not because of performance gains I wanted in VS Code (honestly I found Atom plenty fast for the work I was doing), but because many Atom extensions were left to rot and slowly broke over time as most maintainers moved to VSCode extensions.

Farewell friend, you will be missed.

Re: Atom was archived today

#26

Post by csande17 »

drdeca wrote: post #19
dijit wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what value is that, over the website?

“ because browsers change over time and electron helps you get a working offline snapshot of something you created.” If the browsers change in a way that makes the website not work, the electron application will still work.

This makes sense from the perspective of the individual developer, but it's also a sad reflection of the sorry state of technology that the only way to be sure a website will work in 5 years is by shipping your own copy of the browser.

Re: Atom was archived today

#27

Post by skyfaller »

p-e-w wrote: post #14
paxys wrote: post #4

Pour one out. While Atom itself was overtaken by a better editor, its legacy lives on in the form of "Atom Shell" aka Electron (for better or worse).

For better, certainly. Electron has in particular been an enormous boon for Linux users, because it's so easy to make cross-platform applications now that even companies who wouldn't have bothered otherwise now have a Linux download. No way that apps like Slack would have a Linux desktop version if it wasn't for Electron.

Or another way to phrase it is that the experience sucks equally on all platforms, so you might as well switch to Linux.

Re: Atom was archived today

#29

Post by __ryan__ »

ddhhyy wrote: post #21

I think the Atom editor + Hydrogen plugin for running interactive Python sessions inline with the code is still unmatched by anything available in VS Code. This setup is what I migrated to when I ditched Matlab for the "scientific Python" stack, and I'm still here. Multiple concurrent kernels, the ability to connect any .py file to any running kernel, sharing variables and imports across multple .py files, inline mat…

What’s preventing this from being done in VSCode? Other than it hasn’t yet?

I don’t think it ticks every box for you, but have you tried Jupyter Notebooks in VSCode[0]?

[0] https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/datascience/jupyter-noteb...

Re: Atom was archived today

#30

Post by paxys »

p-e-w wrote: post #14
paxys wrote: post #4

Pour one out. While Atom itself was overtaken by a better editor, its legacy lives on in the form of "Atom Shell" aka Electron (for better or worse).

For better, certainly. Electron has in particular been an enormous boon for Linux users, because it's so easy to make cross-platform applications now that even companies who wouldn't have bothered otherwise now have a Linux download. No way that apps like Slack would have a Linux desktop version if it wasn't for Electron.

The 1% Linux users may have benefited, but it came at the expense of the other 99% on Windows & Mac who had to give up native performance and UI on all their applications.
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