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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Code Collaboration
  4. Text Editor
  5. Atom vs TextMate

Atom vs TextMate

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

TextMate
TextMate
Stacks121
Followers118
Votes56
Atom
Atom
Stacks16.9K
Followers14.5K
Votes2.5K
GitHub Stars60.8K
Forks17.3K

Atom vs TextMate: What are the differences?

Introduction

When it comes to choosing a text editor for coding, both Atom and TextMate are popular choices among developers. However, there are key differences between the two that can influence which one is the right fit for your needs.

  1. Compatibility with Operating Systems: Atom is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it a versatile choice for developers using different systems. On the other hand, TextMate is exclusively available for macOS, limiting its usability for developers working on Windows or Linux machines.

  2. Customizability and Extensions: Atom boasts a wide range of customizable features and extensions that allow users to tailor the editor to their specific needs. TextMate, while still highly customizable, may have a more limited selection of extensions compared to Atom.

  3. Community Support and Updates: Atom is an open-source project with a large community of developers contributing to its updates and improvements regularly. This means that Atom users can benefit from a more frequent update cycle and a wealth of community-created packages. TextMate, being a proprietary software, may have less frequent updates and a smaller community of contributors.

  4. Price and Licensing: Atom is free to use and open-source, making it an accessible option for developers of all levels. TextMate, on the other hand, requires a one-time purchase for a license, which may deter some users who prefer free software options.

  5. User Interface and Design: Atom is known for its sleek and modern interface design, with a wide range of themes and color schemes to choose from. TextMate, while still user-friendly, may have a more simplistic design compared to Atom.

  6. Performance and Speed: In terms of performance, some users have reported that Atom can be slower and more resource-intensive compared to TextMate, which may impact the overall experience for those working on larger projects or with slower machines.

In Summary, while both Atom and TextMate are solid choices for text editing, developers should consider key factors such as compatibility, customizability, licensing, community support, user interface, and performance when deciding which editor to use for their coding projects.

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Advice on TextMate, Atom

Andrey
Andrey

Managing Partner at WhiteLabelDevelopers

May 18, 2020

Decided

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

539k views539k
Comments
Felix
Felix

Graphic Designer & Web Developer at hosting.de GmbH

Jan 9, 2020

DecidedonVisual Studio CodeVisual Studio CodeAtomAtom

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:

  1. Color display of variables in code. This may now sound much, but it improve the display of scss variables and its a core feature.
  2. Out of the box features.
  3. Automation! VSCode suggests usefull things to you.
  4. 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.
  5. Output logging per Plugin.
  6. Setup time. In VSCode I can set up my workspace in under 5 minutes. For Atom I need
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Minimap and vertical scrollbar. This feature is much better implementet in VSCode and you don't need an extra plugin.
  10. Auto completion. Sass mixins example: @include and you press CTRL+SPACE and VSCode shows you every Sass mixin.
  11. 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.
  12. Tree view. The tree view VSCode automaticly brings you to the current open file by default. This helps when working with components.
  13. File search. The file search supports the asterisk so you can search for eg molecule-*.ts.
  14. Tasks support. Tasks are integrated in VSCode so eg. for Typescript you can CTRL + SHIFT + B and select tsc: watch - tsconfig.ts.
  15. Short waiting time. For example when deleting files or beautifying 20.000 lines of json (Atom hangs up).
  16. More releases. Faster feature implementation. Active community.
128k views128k
Comments
René
René

Sr. Financial Analyst

Aug 21, 2020

Review

I have used and like them both... here's my take on what to use in your case.

  1. Use whatever software your instructor is using when learning a language. It makes it simpler to start. Then change to whatever you like.
  2. Use an IDE (Integrated Development Enviroment). For Java I'd pick InteliJ (because I have found the Jetbrains IDEs great) or Visual Studio as a second pick (because it's free for individual coders).
  3. Pick your text editor: the Atom vs Notepad++, vs others question Both Atom and Notepad++ offer many features and add-ons, making it a long-disputed competition. This is what drives to chose between one and the other, and I have been alternating: On Atom: The good:
  • Good looking coding environment
  • Good autocomplete
  • Project focused structure to your files The bad:
  • Higher system resources usage
  • Slower loading time (if you are opening and closing)

Notepad++ The good:

  • Very light system resources use
  • Fast and simple, with decent code higlighting
  • Loads very fast The bad:
  • Not as pretty as Atom
  • Autocomplete and syntax checking is not that good
  • File-focused editing
483 views483
Comments

Detailed Comparison

TextMate
TextMate
Atom
Atom

TextMate brings Apple's approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. By bridging UNIX underpinnings and GUI, TextMate cherry-picks the best of both worlds to the benefit of expert scripters and novice users alike.

At GitHub, we're building the text editor we've always wanted. A tool you can customize to do anything, but also use productively on the first day without ever touching a config file. Atom is modern, approachable, and hackable to the core. We can't wait to see what you build with it.

Ability to Search and Replace in a Project;Auto-Indent for Common Actions Like Pasting Text;Auto-Pairing of Brackets and Other Characters;Clipboard History;Column Selections and Column Typing;Completion of Words from Current Document;CSS-like Selectors to Pinpoint the Scope of Actions and Settings;Declarative Language Grammars for Graceful Mixing and Hacking;Dynamic Outline for Working With Multiple Files;Expand Trigger Words to Code Blocks With Tab-able Placeholders;File Tabs when Working With Projects;Foldable Code Blocks;Function Pop-up for Quick Overview and Navigation;Plug-able Through Your Favorite Scripting Language;Recordable Macros With No Programming Required;Regular Expression Search and Replace (grep);Run Shell Commands from Within a Document;Support for Darcs, Perforce, SVK, and Subversion;Support for More Than 50 Languages;Switch Between Files in Projects With a Minimum of Key Strokes;Themable Syntax Highlight Colors;Visual Bookmarks to Jump Between Places in a File;Works As External Editor for (s)ftp Programs;Works Together With Xcode and Can Build Xcode Projects
Atom is a desktop application based on web technologies;Node.js integration;Modular Design- composed of over 50 open-source packages that integrate around a minimal core;File system browser;Fuzzy finder for quickly opening files;Fast project-wide search and replace;Multiple cursors and selections;Multiple panes;Snippets;Code folding;A clean preferences UI;Import TextMate grammars and themes
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
60.8K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
17.3K
Stacks
121
Stacks
16.9K
Followers
118
Followers
14.5K
Votes
56
Votes
2.5K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 17
    Syntax highlighting
  • 5
    Javascript
  • 5
    PHP Developer
  • 4
    Native UI
  • 4
    jQuery developer
Pros
  • 529
    Free
  • 449
    Open source
  • 343
    Modular design
  • 321
    Hackable
  • 316
    Beautiful UI
Cons
  • 19
    Slow with large files
  • 7
    Slow startup
  • 2
    Most of the time packages are hard to find.
  • 1
    Can be easily Modified
  • 1
    Cannot Run code with F5
Integrations
No integrations available
GitHub
GitHub

What are some alternatives to TextMate, Atom?

Sublime Text

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is available for OS X, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses. Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform.

Vim

Vim

Vim is an advanced text editor that seeks to provide the power of the de-facto Unix editor 'Vi', with a more complete feature set. Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems. Vim is distributed free as charityware.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications. Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

Notepad++

Notepad++

Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

Emacs

Emacs

GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing.

Brackets

Brackets

With focused visual tools and preprocessor support, it is a modern text editor that makes it easy to design in the browser.

Neovim

Neovim

Neovim is a project that seeks to aggressively refactor Vim in order to: simplify maintenance and encourage contributions, split the work between multiple developers, enable the implementation of new/modern user interfaces without any modifications to the core source, and improve extensibility with a new plugin architecture.

VSCodium

VSCodium

It is a community-driven, freely-licensed binary distribution of Microsoft’s editor VSCode.

gedit

gedit

gedit is the GNOME text editor. While aiming at simplicity and ease of use, gedit is a powerful general purpose text editor.

Kakoune

Kakoune

Kakoune is a code editor heavily inspired by Vim, as such most of its commands are similar to vi’s ones. Kakoune can operate in two modes, normal and insertion. In insertion mode, keys are directly inserted into the current buffer. In normal mode, keys are used to manipulate the current selection and to enter insertion mode.

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