Github Rolls Out New Text Editor Atom

hypnosec writes "Github has introduced Atom, its new 'web native' code editor which has been in development for more than six years. Atom is available as a part of an invite-only beta program. GitHub describes Atom as an attempt to create an editor 'that will be welcoming to an elementary school student on their first day learning to code, but also a tool they won't outgrow as they develop into seasoned hackers.'" You can request an invite on atom.io. The source to supporting libraries has already been released, but it looks like Atom itself might not be released (although it is a "specialized variant of Chromium designed to be a text editor rather than a web browser."). The editor is extensible in Javascript instead of "special-purpose scripting languages" like Emacs and VIM (is Javascript really any less messy than Emacs-Lisp though?). A preliminary user guide and customization guide are available to all.

Comments

Because we need yet another editor

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously? Github thinks their customers are too incompetent to use an IDE? I think that says a lot about the mediocre high schoolers that spam that site with poor quality code. Instead of reducing the quality of their tools, they should instead invest in educating the mouth-breathers that use their site.

Re:Roll out?

[sexconker]

Github cofounder Tom Preston-Werner (@mojombo) has been tweeting about it and handing out invites; that seems to imply this is legit.

Still, it's using a shitty vanity TLD. PASS.

Re:yeah for dumb posts on slashdot

[Mister Liberty]

Javascript common to Web developers? That's a laugh! They all know JQuery,
which to me says 'we're all rather incompetent and need another juggler in there to
do the hard work for us".

The truth is: Web development (I do it myself somteimes) isn't real coding.
Sorry.