I wish it was open source. We need a modern, good looking, libre text editor.
There is LightTable, also you can even make Emacs or Vim as "good looking" as this if you give them so tweak.
Atom
111–120 of 662 posts
Re: Atom
#112You know, I'm usually very skeptical of web apps, but building a text editor in WebKit actually seems like a really good idea. Everything a browser should be good at — text display, scripting, styling — also applies to text editors. You don't really have to worry about complex UI, animation, or user input. You also get remote access almost for free. What other text-centric apps can be made better by a browser framewo…
HTML's not good at windows, apps, doesn't have any sort of concept of a widget and has the kind of layout rules you'd have a tough time beating if you were sitting there trying to be deliberately malicious to future programmers.
It's not a good idea, but given the abysmal state that desktop apps seem to be in at the moment[1], it's probably the least bad idea.
[1] Been about 5 years since I did a desktop app, but if anything they look to be getting worse. WPF, flop. Flex, flop. GTK+ looks poo. If I had to do a cross platform desktop app, I wouldn't even know where to start.
Re: Atom
#113I am very excited about this, I love the Github team and this looks like a great tool. My only question is -- why should I switch to this from Sublime Text? Are there specific use cases it handles better out of the box, or is it more of a modular base that will be expected to grow and outfeature ST2/3's seasoned plugin economy? I am very happy with Sublime Text now, but I would be willing to switch if either it gaine…
In practice, the ST3 API is extremely limiting and poorly implemented. The docs are both lacking and dated (read incorrect). It is trivial to crash ST3 by making the incorrect sequence of correct API calls. It is also common to resort to polling the editor to make up for other deficiencies. The API also only allows for extremely limited UI choices forcing highly unintuitive interfaces on end users. The ST3 runtime also features such gems as not shipping the ssl module on linux (while ST2 stripped out even more stuff).
I also expect NPM to be much better in practice than the sublime package manager which frequently ships broken code. JS is a better choice than python for async code which will make writing plugins easier.
Furthermore, ST is 3 people who largely ignore all feedback from the community regarding bugs and features. It won't be hard to out compete ST in the long run.
Re: Atom
#114Metrics is an interesting package. It reports usage stats to Google Analytics, referenced by a hash of the machine's MAC address: http://atom.io/packages/metrics
Good catch. I really shouldn't have any more of a problem with a desktop app tracking me than I do a web app but for some reason I do. I guess because I can always use Disconnect in the browser and I can't with Atom. I guess the fact that it is open about it is a positive thing, though.
It sounds like you can disable Metrics in the settings.
Re: Atom
#115Re: Atom
#116To help us improve the editor, Atom sends usage information to Google Analytics. See [atom/metrics]( https://github.com/atom/metrics ) for details. More data going to Google without opting in first? Bummer.
From the page you link to:
If you do not want this information reported, disable this package from the Metrics section of the Settings view (cmd-,).
Re: Atom
#117Can this work at all without an internet connection? Can it work offline?
It is a desktop app, so yes.
Re: Atom
#118Hopefully this will run on arm, which is something SublimeText does not
Re: Atom
#119You know, I'm usually very skeptical of web apps, but building a text editor in WebKit actually seems like a really good idea. Everything a browser should be good at — text display, scripting, styling — also applies to text editors. You don't really have to worry about complex UI, animation, or user input. You also get remote access almost for free. What other text-centric apps can be made better by a browser framewo…
HTML's not good at windows, apps, doesn't have any sort of concept of a widget and has the kind of layout rules you'd have a tough time beating if you were sitting there trying to be deliberately malicious to future programmers. It's not a good idea, but given the abysmal state that desktop apps seem to be in at the moment[1], it's probably the least bad idea. [1] Been about 5 years since I did a desktop app, but if…
I agree with you, but I don't think most of those things are really vital for a great text editor. For the most part, it's just a giant window with your text in it, maybe a sidebar or two. Most of the magic happens under the hood. That's why I think this is a good idea.
Dunno about cross-platform app development, but Cocoa on OSX is pretty nice. QT isn't bad either, from what I've tried.
Re: Atom
#120To help us improve the editor, Atom sends usage information to Google Analytics. See [atom/metrics]( https://github.com/atom/metrics ) for details. More data going to Google without opting in first? Bummer.
I know it's a stretch, but technically, you are opting in by downloading and running the program, and therefor accepting some sort of privacy policy or ToS.