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Atom vs Sublime Text vs Vim: What are the differences?
- Customization: Atom provides extensive customization options through its packages and themes, allowing users to personalize their workflow to a great extent. Sublime Text also offers customization but might require more effort to achieve the same level as Atom. Vim, on the other hand, has a steep learning curve for customization due to its modal editing system.
- Vim Compatibility: Vim commands and plugins can often be used in Sublime Text through plugins, making it a popular choice for Vim users transitioning to a more modern editor. Atom, while providing Vim keybindings through plugins, may not offer the same seamless integration for hardcore Vim users.
- Resource Usage: Sublime Text is known for its lightweight nature and efficient performance, making it an ideal choice for users with lower-end devices. Atom, on the other hand, can be resource-heavy due to its Electron framework, impacting performance on slower machines. Vim is extremely lightweight and runs efficiently even on older hardware.
- Package Ecosystem: Atom boasts a vast ecosystem of plugins and themes through its package manager, allowing users to enhance their editing experience with a variety of community-contributed extensions. Sublime Text also has a wide range of plugins available but may not offer the same level of integration and ease of installation as Atom. Vim's plugin ecosystem is robust and extensive, with a focus on productivity and efficiency in text editing tasks.
- User Interface: Atom comes with a modern and visually appealing user interface, making it attractive to users who value aesthetics in their coding environment. Sublime Text offers a clean and minimalist interface, focusing more on functionality rather than visual flair. Vim has a text-based interface that may not appeal to users accustomed to graphical editors but provides unmatched speed and efficiency in text manipulation.
- Learning Curve: Atom provides a user-friendly interface with intuitive features, making it relatively easy for beginners to start using. Sublime Text offers a similar learning curve with a straightforward setup and familiar user interface. Vim, however, has a steep learning curve due to its unique modal editing system, requiring dedication and practice to master efficiently.
In Summary, Atom, Sublime Text, and Vim each have distinct advantages in terms of customization, compatibility with Vim, resource usage, package ecosystem, user interface, and learning curve, catering to different preferences and needs of users.
For a Visual Studio Code/Atom developer that works mostly with Node.js/TypeScript/Ruby/Go and wants to get rid of graphic-text-editors-IDE-like at once, which one is worthy of investing time to pick up?
I'm a total n00b on the subject, but I've read good things about Neovim's Lua support, and I wonder what would be the VIM response/approach for it?
Neovim can basically do everything Vim can with one major advantage - the number of contributors to the code base is just so much wider (Vim is ~100% maintained only by B. Mooleanaar). Whatever you learn for Neovim you can also apply to Vim and vice versa. And of course there is the never ending Vim vs Emacs controversy - but better not get into that war.
Actually, the biggest advantage with Neovim (as a VS user) is that you can embed REAL Neovim as the editor UI, rather than using a "Vim emulation", you're using actual NVIM, embedded in VS!
"asvetliakov.vscode-neovim" is the extension you are looking for:
- Install the 'vscode-neovim; extension (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=asvetliakov.vscode-neovim)
- Install Neovim version 0.5+ nightly
- Start winning.
(You can install neovim-nightly separately for just vscode, I usually build and install it to /opt/nvim - it's enough enough to do - let me know if you need help).
Works wonderfully. It might not work out of the box if you have some 100K epic nvim initialization file, but the plugin documents a workaround for having an embedding/VS specific configuration.
I don't actually notice much of a difference between the two, as the end result looks identical. If you use Vim and are switch to Neovim it's an extremely easy 1-minute process. I switched from Vim to Neovim. I can't say I found much of a difference, but the key points where Neovim could be better than just vim is that first, there are much more people maintaining Neovim compared to vim, which means fewer bugs and a modern code base. It also has a smaller code base which might result in a small speed improvement. Another thing is that it's basically just a fork of vim, so what harm can it do? ;)
I recommend using vim 8+
it has native plugin support
if you need language supports you can install the package vim-nox
which will come with support for python, lua, ruby, etc
It truly depends on whether you want to completely avoid GUI and stick to TUI and command lines. If you want to edit all of your codes within a terminal, then Vim or neovim would be the choice. Emacs can be run in a terminal, but the functionality is limited. Most people use Emacs using GUI and emacs-client not to use too much memory.
My general preference is to use an independent text editor, which is better if it is highly customizable and programmable. So, I have used Emacs for several years. For beginners, I guess Emacs requires significant time to learn to fully enjoy its wonderful functionalities. In that sense, using atom would be a recommendable option.
Regardless of all the situations, learning basic vim in the terminal will help you in any case. In summary, I recommend 1. vim as a default editor in the terminal 2. atom if you are a beginner, or 3. Emacs if you have a long-term plan to master a programmable editor
Other editors like sublime text, VS code, and so forth are also worth learning and using. But, no matter which editor you choose, stick to one or two until you become an advanced user. Being able to use most text editors at an intermediate level is waste of time.
I hope it helps.
The hints on the codebase's contributors and the VSCode integration helped me make up my mind.
I really appreciate all comments, though.
Thanks a bunch!
Visual Studio Code became famous over the past 3+ years I believe. The clean UI, easy to use UX and the plethora of integrations made it a very easy decision for us. Our gripe with Sublime was probably only the UX side. VSCode has not failed us till now, and still is able to support our development env without any significant effort.
Goland being paid, as well as built only for Go seemed like a significant limitation to not consider it.
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 decided to choose VSCode over Sublime text for my Systems Programming class in C. What I love about VSCode is its awesome ability to add extensions. Intellisense is a beautiful debugger, and Remote SSH allows me to login and make real-time changes in VSCode to files on my university server. This is an awesome alternative to going back and forth on pushing/pulling code and logging into servers in the terminal. Great choice for anyone interested in C programming!
Pros of Atom
- Free529
- Open source449
- Modular design343
- Hackable321
- Beautiful UI316
- Github integration170
- Backed by github147
- Built with node.js119
- Web native113
- Community107
- Packages35
- Cross platform18
- Multicursor support5
- Nice UI5
- TypeScript editor5
- Snippets3
- Simple but powerful3
- Open source, lots of packages, and so configurable3
- cli start3
- Chrome Inspector works IN EDITOR3
- Awesome2
- Smart TypeScript code completion2
- Well documented2
- It's powerful2
- Code readability2
- works with GitLab1
- User friendly1
- full support1
- vim support1
- Split-Tab Layout1
- "Free", "Hackable", "Open Source", The Awesomness1
- Apm publish minor1
- Hackable and Open Source1
- Consistent UI on all platforms1
- Publish0
Pros of Sublime Text
- Lightweight720
- Plugins652
- Super fast641
- Great code editor468
- Cross platform442
- Nice UI280
- Unlimited trial260
- Cmd + d is the best command ever153
- Great community92
- Package control, modules46
- Mac OS X support26
- Easy to get started with23
- Monokai22
- Everything you need without the bloat21
- Built in Python21
- Easy18
- Speed14
- Session & edit resuming12
- Package Control10
- Well Designed9
- Multiple selections8
- ALT + CMD + DOWN is the best command ever7
- Nice7
- Fast, simple and lightweight7
- It's easy to use, beautiful, simple, and plugins rule5
- So futuristic and convenient5
- ALT + F3 the best command ever5
- Great5
- Find anything fast within entire project4
- Easy to use4
- Free4
- Simple and clean design4
- Hackable3
- Pretty3
- UI + plugins3
- Sublime Merge (Git Integration)3
- Totally customizable2
- Color schemes and cmd+d2
- Material theme best theme forever2
- Const0
Pros of Vim
- Comes by default in most unix systems (remote editing)347
- Fast328
- Highly configurable312
- Less mouse dependence297
- Lightweight247
- Speed145
- Plugins100
- Hardcore97
- It's for pros82
- Vertically split windows65
- Open-source30
- Modal editing25
- No remembering shortcuts, instead "talks" to the editor22
- It stood the Test of Time21
- Unicode16
- VimPlugins13
- Everything is on the keyboard13
- Stick with terminal13
- Dotfiles12
- Flexible Indenting11
- Hands stay on the keyboard10
- Efficient and powerful10
- Programmable10
- Everywhere9
- Large number of Shortcuts9
- A chainsaw for text editing8
- Unmatched productivity8
- Developer speed7
- Super fast7
- Makes you a true bearded developer7
- Because its not Emacs7
- Modal editing changes everything7
- You cannot exit6
- Themes6
- EasyMotion5
- Most and most powerful plugins of any editor5
- Shell escapes and shell imports :!<command> and !!cmd5
- Intergrated into most editors5
- Shortcuts5
- Great on large text files5
- Habit5
- Plugin manager options. Vim-plug, Pathogen, etc5
- Intuitive, once mastered4
- Perfect command line editor4
- Not MicroSoft1
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Cons of Atom
- Slow with large files19
- Slow startup7
- Most of the time packages are hard to find.2
- No longer maintained1
- Cannot Run code with F51
- Can be easily Modified1
Cons of Sublime Text
- Steep learning curve8
- Everything6
- Flexibility to move file4
- Number of plugins doing the same thing4
- Doesn't act like a Mac app4
- Not open sourced3
- Don't have flutter integration2
- Forces you to buy license2
Cons of Vim
- Ugly UI8
- Hard to learn5