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Atom vs Emacs: What are the differences?
Key Differences between Atom and Emacs
Introduction
In this article, we will compare and highlight the key differences between Atom and Emacs, two popular text editors used by developers for coding purposes.
Customization and Extensibility: Atom provides a highly customizable and extensible environment through its built-in package manager. Users can easily install packages to add new features, themes, and keybindings. On the other hand, Emacs, known for its powerful customizability, offers a Lisp-based scripting language that allows users to completely modify its behavior and functionality.
Ease of Use: When it comes to user-friendliness, Atom has a more modern and intuitive interface, making it easier for beginners to get started. It offers a visual approach to settings and customization options. Conversely, Emacs has a steeper learning curve due to its heavy reliance on keyboard shortcuts and commands, which may be challenging for beginners but can significantly improve productivity for experienced users.
Performance: Atom is known for its resource-intensive nature, sometimes leading to slower startup and response times, especially when working with large files. On the other hand, Emacs is designed to be lightweight and highly efficient, ensuring faster performance even when dealing with extensive codebases, making it suitable for older hardware or limited resource environments.
Native Language Integration: While both editors support multiple programming languages, Emacs has a long-standing reputation for its deep integration with various programming languages and tools. Emacs provides extensive language modes and packages, making it a powerful choice for developers who work with multiple languages. Atom, although it also offers language-specific packages, may not have the same level of integration and support for certain languages.
Inline Documentation and Help: Emacs offers a comprehensive built-in documentation system, allowing users to access documentation, tutorials, and reference manuals directly from within the editor. This feature assists users in learning and exploring Emacs's extensive functionality. Atom, while it does offer a documentation feature, may not provide the same level of in-depth and comprehensive documentation as Emacs.
Large Community and Ecosystem: Atom has a vibrant community that actively develops and maintains a wide range of open-source packages and themes. The availability of numerous plugins extends the functionality and customization options of Atom. Emacs, being one of the oldest text editors, has a massive and devoted community that continues to contribute to its ecosystem. The vast collection of packages and configurations available for Emacs provides a wealth of options for customization and enhancement.
In summary, the key differences between Atom and Emacs can be summarized as follows: Atom offers a more user-friendly and modern interface, with a high degree of customization and extensibility through its built-in package manager. It may suffer from performance issues on resource-limited systems compared to Emacs, which excels in efficiency and customization options. Emacs has deep language integration, comprehensive documentation, a steeper learning curve, and a large, dedicated community.
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:
@includeand 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 + Band 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.