Lab 6 - Editors

The editors I choose to test out are ATOM and Visual Studio Code. I have never used either text editors. The text editor I am most familiar with is called Notepad++. This is because it gave me many flexibility working with different file system, allowed me to have multiple files open, and lets me divide the work space. ATOM and Visual Studio Code is compared with my understanding of Notepad++.

Visual Studio Code
First, you may be thinking, Visual studio is a Microsoft software, therefore, it can only be used  in Windows OS. But this is not the case. It is available for all platform. MacOS, Linux, and Windows. You name it. It will work. Some of the features provided by Visual Studio Code is that it lets you install any number of third-party extensions. It lets you customize the editor to your needs. Since this is an open source project, you can also use the editor to contribute to the community as well. It was very quick and easy to install Visual Studio Code as well.

Different from Notepad++, it contains supports for IntelliSense code completion to ease the coding method of users. It has command-line that you can use for quick shortcut just like using command-line or terminal on your OS. It also has a debugging tool to help coders walk-in and walk-out of the code they have problems with. It also has Git integration built-in to the software. To make changes to the editor's settings, you need to change it through the text editor which seemed little odd. It did not provide any GUI to change the settings you want to change. It felt like I needed to know all the setting names before I could understand what I need to do.

ATOM
ATOM was really similar to that of Visual Studio Code. But interesting fact about ATOM is that it is built by GitHub. Creating the text editor specifically for open source community and more! Just like Visual Studio Code, it gives you plenty of extensions for users to install to make the text editor that you want. If you want IDE features, just go and install a package. It also has over active community in open source.  Also, design seems to be better than Visual Studio Code in my opinion. It also has command-line palette. It has very good GUI for changing settings not like Visual Studio.

Similar to Notepad++. it allows side by side coding. But unlike Notepad++ you can have all the files organized on the side panel. Which is very convenient if you want to locate the file you want to open easily.

Overall, I feel like they are both good editors. They are definitely better than Notepad++, and it gives me good opportunity to move away from it. I love the design of ATOM and the features that offers which is all that Visual Studio Code can do. Therefore, starting now, I will get myself to use ATOM text editor.