Atom editor is worth checking out

As I write this entry in markdown, I see the live results a separate pane to the right. It's only been a few minutes but so far I'm very impressed with Atom. You should go check it out if you haven't already. Here's what I like so far.

Don't call them plugins, they're 'packages'

Shrug. Whatever you call them, their plugin/package system is great. It's easy to install packages and the ones I've installed start working immediately without restart. Smells like there's some good design under the hood.

Command Interface Autocomplete

Packages can provide various 'commands' you can run. Running these commands is like spot line on OS X. You type command + shift + P, then as you start typing it searches the commands. Very nice.

Git integration with git-plus

In particular the git integration seems interesting. When you edit a file, it indicates which lines have changed, and which are new. With the git-plus package installed it's easy to run git commands without ever leaving your editor. Normally I'm not a big fan of IDE intgration with git. With the command searching interface, it's fun.

It's built with Electron

It's built with Electron which is also terrific as well. I think that's separate post. But you should check it out if you want to build desktop apps using node.js + HTML5.

It's FLOSS!

It's FLOSS. Turns out it's made by GitHub. Lots of great FLOSS coming out of GitHub. Thanks!

Update (2016-02-28): The goto declaration ability of WebStorm is FAR superior to any Atom packages I've tried. This is the only thing keeping me from using Atom as my daily driver for development.