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

Atom vs Xcode

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Atom
Atom
Stacks16.9K
Followers14.5K
Votes2.5K
GitHub Stars60.8K
Forks17.3K
Xcode
Xcode
Stacks19.3K
Followers14.7K
Votes213

Atom vs Xcode: What are the differences?

Introduction

Here, we will discuss the key differences between Atom and Xcode - two popular code editors/IDEs used by developers.

  1. Price: Atom is an open-source code editor, which means it is free for everyone to use, modify, and distribute. On the other hand, Xcode is also free to download and use, but it is only available for macOS and iOS development.

  2. Platform Compatibility: Atom is built on web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, making it compatible with multiple platforms such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. Xcode, on the other hand, is exclusive to macOS and can only be used for developing applications for Apple platforms like macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

  3. Language Support: Atom offers support for a wide range of programming languages and can be extended with community-created packages. Xcode, being a specialized IDE by Apple, offers extensive support for programming languages used in Apple platforms like Swift and Objective-C, but its options for other languages may be limited.

  4. Code Navigation and Documentation: Atom provides intuitive code navigation tools, allowing users to easily jump to specific functions, definitions, or sections of code. It also offers plugins for generating documentation. Xcode, on the other hand, offers powerful code navigation features, integrated documentation, and support for Apple's official documentation.

  5. Build and Debugging Tools: Xcode offers a rich set of build and debugging tools specifically tailored for Apple platform development. It provides seamless integration with Apple's frameworks, simulators, and devices for easy testing and debugging. Atom, being a code editor, doesn't offer such specialized build and debugging tools dedicated to a specific platform.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Atom has a thriving community of users and developers who create and maintain a vast library of packages, themes, and addons for customization and extending functionality. Xcode, although it has a community, focuses more on Apple’s developer ecosystem with resources like developer forums, documentation, and developer tools specific to Apple platforms.

In summary, the key differences between Atom and Xcode lie in their price, platform compatibility, language support, code navigation and documentation features, specialized build and debugging tools, and the focus of their respective communities and ecosystems.

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Advice on Atom, Xcode

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
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
484 views484
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Atom
Atom
Xcode
Xcode

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.

The Xcode IDE is at the center of the Apple development experience. Tightly integrated with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, Xcode is an incredibly productive environment for building amazing apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

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
Source Editor;Assistant Editor;Asset Catalog;OpenGL Frame Capture;Version Editor;Interface Builder Built In;iOS Simulator;Integrated Build System;Continuous Integration;Instrument Library;Command Line Tools
Statistics
GitHub Stars
60.8K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
17.3K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
16.9K
Stacks
19.3K
Followers
14.5K
Followers
14.7K
Votes
2.5K
Votes
213
Pros & Cons
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
Pros
  • 130
    IOS Development
  • 33
    Personal assistant on steroids
  • 29
    Easy setup
  • 17
    Excellent integration with Clang
  • 3
    Beautiful
Cons
  • 6
    Massively bloated and complicated for smaller projects
  • 3
    Horrible auto completiting and text editing
  • 1
    Very slow emulator
  • 1
    Slow startup
Integrations
GitHub
GitHub
Cocoa Touch (iOS)
Cocoa Touch (iOS)
Cocoa (OS X)
Cocoa (OS X)

What are some alternatives to Atom, Xcode?

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.

PhpStorm

PhpStorm

PhpStorm is a PHP IDE which keeps up with latest PHP & web languages trends, integrates a variety of modern tools, and brings even more extensibility with support for major PHP frameworks.

IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA

Out of the box, IntelliJ IDEA provides a comprehensive feature set including tools and integrations with the most important modern technologies and frameworks for enterprise and web development with Java, Scala, Groovy and other languages.

Visual Studio

Visual Studio

Visual Studio is a suite of component-based software development tools and other technologies for building powerful, high-performance applications.

WebStorm

WebStorm

WebStorm is a lightweight and intelligent IDE for front-end development and server-side JavaScript.

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans IDE is FREE, open source, and has a worldwide community of users and developers.

PyCharm

PyCharm

PyCharm’s smart code editor provides first-class support for Python, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, TypeScript, CSS, popular template languages and more. Take advantage of language-aware code completion, error detection, and on-the-fly code fixes!

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.

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