Atom, the popular text editor for developers, is getting converted into a full-fledged development environment. GitHub has already initiated the process by launching an optional features package with Facebook called Atom IDE.
The first release of Atom IDE, which is basically Atom 1.21, includes packages for go to definition, ability to find all references, warnings, document formatting, an outline view, hover-to-reveal information and smarter context-aware auto-completion. Additionally, GitHub is using existing language servers for particular languages to include a majority of features and bring common helper tools like downloading support files and conversions.
GitHub’s development team has provided integrated packages for TypeScript, JavaScript, Flow, PHP and C# that come within the new Atom release. This comes through language servers that help the team analyse the listed programming languages and platforms. Furthermore, Atom has provided a language client NPM library that makes it easier for developers to compile their own Atom IDE packages.
The new development also includes the first version of Filesystem Watcher API that comes with the Git integration and Language Server support.
You can get started with the half-baked Atom IDE by bringing up Atom’s install package dialogue. Moreover, you need to install the atom-ide-ui package to activate IDE UI and install necessary language support.
Obvious decision
Looking at the massive user base of Atom, it seems to be an obvious decision for GitHub to convert it into an IDE. This new development would make competition tougher for other text editors, including Vim and Notepad++.
