GitHub, the hosting service for development projects of all kinds released its own version of a webs editor in 2014 under the name Atom. At a basic level, the cross-platform framework Electron (formerly Atom Shell) serves to combine the browser Chromium with the JavaScript runtime environment Node.js and also to carry the script of the GitHub developers. After initially releasing extensions and packages exclusively under an open source license, GitHub eventually decided to release the source code of the entire project, including all of the standard “packages” such as the editor’s function modules, under the MIT license. The functions of the web editor are accessible via individual JavaScript APIs, but the developers recommend using CoffeeScript instead of JavaScript. The simplistic stylesheet language Less is used as the standard for CSS content in Atom.
Thanks to their respective plugins, the webeditor supports the newest standards of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (such as CoffeeScript), as well as various programming languages like, for example, PHP, Ruby, Java, C++, Python, and Perl. Some of the variety of features offered by the free Dreamweaver alternative are:
- Integrated package manager: Atom operates with its own package manager (aptly named the Atom Package Manager) that makes the integration and installation of packages a breeze.
- Automatic completion: Depending on which programming language you’re working with, Atom offers suggestions for the completion of your code. These recommendations can be added at the push of a button. You can also expand the range of possible suggestions with your own code snippets.
- Syntax highlighter: For installed programming languages, the Dreamweaver alternative offers a syntax highlighter for the most important rules. These will automatically be colored if you choose to use the tool.
- Version management: Atom, as a GitHub application, implements the version control tool Git as one would expect. This helps you keep track of changes to your web project. For example, you can set the tool to automatically highlight any altered lines for visual tracking.
- File system browser: File system browsers allow you to easily search for and open individual files, a complete project, or multiple projects, all in one window.
- Command palette: With a simple key combination, you can access a search mask to find available commands and easily access them.