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Atom vs Brackets: What are the differences?
Introduction
Here, we will compare Atom and Brackets, two popular text editors, and highlight their key differences.
1. Built-in Terminal and Git Integration: Atom provides a built-in terminal, allowing users to access the command line interface without leaving the editor. Additionally, it offers seamless integration with Git, enabling developers to efficiently manage version control within the editor itself.
2. Popularity and Community Support: Atom boasts a larger and more active user community, resulting in a wider range of available themes, packages, and plugins. Brackets, on the other hand, has a smaller community but offers a more streamlined experience by focusing on essential features.
3. Live Preview: Brackets comes with a feature called "Live Preview," which allows developers to see the changes to their code in real-time as they work on it; this is particularly useful for web development. Although Atom also provides live preview capabilities through packages, it requires additional setup and configuration.
4. Language Support: While both Atom and Brackets support a wide range of programming languages, Atom has a broader ecosystem of community-developed extensions, making it more versatile for different coding needs and offering better syntax highlighting and autocompletion for various programming languages.
5. Performance and Load Time: Brackets has been optimized for faster load times and overall performance, making it ideal for quick coding tasks and small projects. Atom, on the other hand, can be slower and more resource-intensive, making it better suited for larger projects with extensive customization needs.
6. Advanced Customization Options: Atom offers extensive customization options, allowing users to personalize the editor's appearance, key bindings, and functionality to suit their preferences. Brackets, while still customizable, has a more focused and streamlined approach, providing a simpler and more user-friendly interface out-of-the-box.
In Summary, Atom offers a broader range of community support, versatile language support, and advanced customization options but can be slower and resource-intensive, while Brackets excels in performance, streamlined experience, and real-time code preview capabilities.
Lightweight and versatile. Huge library of extensions that enable you to integrate a host of services to your development environment. VS Code's biggest strength is its library of extensions which enables it to directly compete with every single major IDE for almost all major programming languages.
Since communication with Github is not necessary, the Atom is less convenient in working with text and code. Sublim's support and understanding of projects is best for us. Notepad for us is a completely outdated solution with an unacceptable interface. We use a good theme for Sublim ayu-dark
I use Visual Studio Code every day, it was very refreshing coming from Atom to get a lightweight, all i need setup right out of the box.
After working with Atom for around 2 years I switch to VSCode.
Here is why:
- Color display of variables in code. This may now sound much, but it improve the display of scss variables and its a core feature.
- Out of the box features.
- Automation! VSCode suggests usefull things to you.
- Integraded console. I love the console in VSCode. It is faster than my 'default' cmd on Windows. For Atom you would have to install a package, that doesn't work so well on Windows.
- Output logging per Plugin.
- Setup time. In VSCode I can set up my workspace in under 5 minutes. For Atom I need
- Plugins work perfect out of the box. This is a mayor one for me. For example: In order to set up Editorconfig you have to adjust mutliple values and plugins to get it work. Plugin creators of Editorconfig for Atom are not to blame: They include a linter, that verifies whether the settings are correct or not.
- Git implementation. VSCode ships with Git and even if the git packet of vscode doesn't look like much, theres a lot to it. For example you can watch changes inline.
- Minimap and vertical scrollbar. This feature is much better implementet in VSCode and you don't need an extra plugin.
- Auto completion. Sass mixins example:
@include
and you press CTRL+SPACE and VSCode shows you every Sass mixin. - Copy paths from open file tab. In VSCode you can copy the path of an file directly when you have it open. In atom you need to select 'show in tree view' and than copy the path or relative path.
- Tree view. The tree view VSCode automaticly brings you to the current open file by default. This helps when working with components.
- File search. The file search supports the asterisk so you can search for eg
molecule-*.ts
. - Tasks support. Tasks are integrated in VSCode so eg. for Typescript you can
CTRL + SHIFT + B
and selecttsc: watch - tsconfig.ts
. - Short waiting time. For example when deleting files or beautifying 20.000 lines of json (Atom hangs up).
- More releases. Faster feature implementation. Active community.
Pros of Atom
- Free529
- Open source449
- Modular design343
- Hackable321
- Beautiful UI316
- Backed by github147
- Built with node.js119
- Web native113
- Community107
- Packages35
- Cross platform18
- Nice UI5
- Multicursor support5
- TypeScript editor5
- Open source, lots of packages, and so configurable3
- cli start3
- Simple but powerful3
- Chrome Inspector works IN EDITOR3
- Snippets3
- Code readability2
- It's powerful2
- Awesome2
- Smart TypeScript code completion2
- Well documented2
- works with GitLab1
- "Free", "Hackable", "Open Source", The Awesomness1
- full support1
- vim support1
- Split-Tab Layout1
- Apm publish minor1
- Consistent UI on all platforms1
- User friendly1
- Hackable and Open Source1
- Publish0
Pros of Brackets
- Beautiful UI51
- Lightweight40
- Extremely customizable25
- Free plugins20
- Live Preview14
- Free themes13
- Clean8
- Easy7
- Integration with photoshop6
- Perfect for web development4
- Simple4
- Fast4
- Awesome UI2
- Clean UI2
- Code suggestions2
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Cons of Atom
- Slow with large files19
- Slow startup7
- Most of the time packages are hard to find.2
- No longer maintained1
- Cannot Run code with F51
- Can be easily Modified1
Cons of Brackets
- Not good for backend developer3
- You have to edit json file to set your settings.1
- Bad node.js support1