Dev.SN

GitHub's Atom: Yet Another Text Editor.

posted by Dopefish on Friday February 28 2014, @11:00AM   
from the probably-better-than-notepad dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "GitHub's Atom, a new text editor blending C++ and web technologies, is now being released as a limited beta. The new editor, which claims to have partial TextMate support, is extensible with the help of a centralized add-on manger (the same way Eclipse does) and is heavily integrated with the github platform. The final licence is not known at the moment, but the project already makes use of over 80 open source software packages.

Access to the beta is currently "invite only"."

• "Web technology" may be not the right word "Web technology" may be not the right word (Score: 5, Informative) by Sir Garlon on Friday February 28 2014, @11:33AM

  by Sir Garlon (1264) on Friday February 28 2014, @11:33AM (#8549)

  When I hear "Web technology" I think of HTTP messages going back and forth. That is not, apparently, what the developers mean. From TFA:

  Atom is a desktop application based on web technologies. Like other desktop apps, it has its own icon in the dock, native menus and dialogs, and full access to the file system.

  Open the dev tools, however, and Atom's web-based core shines through. Whether you're tweaking the look of Atom's interface with CSS or adding major features with HTML and JavaScript, it's never been easier to take control of your editor.

  I don't know WTF they mean by "adding major features with HTML" and I am not sure whether to be intrigued or appalled. ;-) If I had to guess, Javascript is the real way to add features and (I hope) HTML only gets involved through the <script> tag.

  I was going to say something snarky to the effect "those who don't understand Emacs [gnu.org] are doomed to repeat it" but then I read all the way down TFA:

  No one wants to waste time configuring their editor before they can start using it.

  So no, this is not a new Emacs. ;-) (ducks)

  --
  [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight who is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.

  Starting Score:	1		point
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• Re:"Web technology" may be not the right word (Score: 2, Interesting) by Wodan on Friday February 28 2014, @11:45AM

  by Wodan (517) on Friday February 28 2014, @11:45AM (#8556)

  That makes me wonder if they use some hmtl widget for their interface, that could make it interesting for things like using the same html/javascript on websites, assuming they improved the editing a lot over say soylentnews' text entry box.

  Parent

• Re:"Web technology" may be not the right word (Score: 4, Funny) by Angry Jesus on Friday February 28 2014, @01:44PM

  by Angry Jesus (182) on Friday February 28 2014, @01:44PM (#8635)

  I don't know WTF they mean by "adding major features with HTML"

  That would be prominent use of the <blink> tag.

  Parent

• Re:"Web technology" may be not the right word Re:"Web technology" may be not the right word (Score: 2, Interesting) by theluggage on Friday February 28 2014, @02:14PM

  by theluggage (1797) on Friday February 28 2014, @02:14PM (#8656)

  I don't know WTF they mean by "adding major features with HTML" and I am not sure whether to be intrigued or appalled.

  Sounds like HTML is the rendering engine, Javascript provides the logic.

  What you have here is a "web app" written in HTML5 + Javascript, but running from local storage instead of via http.

  That would actually be quite a handy way of writing platform-independent applications (esp. if you maybe wanted to offer a choice between a cloud-based app and a local app) except that browsers are completely paranoid about local resource access and cross-site scripting, so you quickly hit all sorts of obstacles. (the paranoia is mostly justified - although it would be nice if the anti-xss rules consistently recognised 'file://somepath/' as a 'domain' so you could at least script between resources loaded from the same directory).

  So, I think what they've done is shipped it with a version of Chromium that gives scripts full access to local resource (but is presumably appropriately paranoid about accessing the web).

  Parent

  • Re:"Web technology" may be not the right word (Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Friday February 28 2014, @02:58PM

    by Sir Garlon (1264) on Friday February 28 2014, @02:58PM (#8692)

    What you have here is a "web app" written in HTML5 + Javascript, but running from local storage instead of via http.

    That would actually be quite a handy way of writing platform-independent applications

    Wouldn't it also be a handy attack vector?

    --
    [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight who is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.

    Parent

• Re:"Web technology" may be not the right word (Score: 1) by Geotti on Friday February 28 2014, @05:38PM

  by Geotti (1146) on Friday February 28 2014, @05:38PM (#8808)

  Yeah, they actually meant to say that their editor is "web scale" but they forgot their buzzword bingo cards at home and had to go with whatever the intern suggested.

  Parent