Debugging
Atom is a free and open-text editor that is user-friendly, customizable, and mobile. It is a desktop application built on HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Node.js, and operates using the Electron framework. Atom boasts of simplicity, flexibility and effectiveness that appeal to many developers, expert and novice alike. The Atom app is designed to be personal, intuitive and fun with 3D graphics, voice recognition and security via selfies, and has been developed on a game-design platform called Unity. Atom is a free and open-text editor that is user-friendly, customizable, and mobile. It is a desktop application built on HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Node.js, and operates using the Electron framework. Atom boasts of simplicity, flexibility and effectiveness that appeal to. Atom Open-in-App. This very simple:atom: package allows you open any of your file instantly from Atom editor within any application you want. Files can be opened both from text editor and tree view. You can open files easily from context menu, instantly with key bindings. Keyboard shortcut support is provided on.tree-view panel as well.
Atom provides several tools to help you understand unexpected behavior and debug problems. This guide describes some of those tools and a few approaches to help you debug and provide more helpful information when submitting issues:
Update to the Latest Version
You might be running into an issue which was already fixed in a more recent version of Atom than the one you're using.
If you're using a released version, check which version of Atom you're using:
Then check for the latest Stable version.
If there is a more recent release available, you can update to the most recent release with the auto-update functionality built in to Atom and the about package. You can open the About View by using the Atom > About menu option to see whether Atom is up-to-date, downloading a new update or click the button to 'Restart and Install Update'.
If there is a more recent release available, you can update to the most recent release with the auto-update functionality built in to Atom and the about package. You can open the About View by using the Help > About menu option to see whether Atom is up-to-date, downloading a new update or click the button to 'Restart and Install Update'.
To update to the latest version, you can download it from the atom.io website or the latest release on GitHub and follow the Installation instructions for Atom on Linux.
If you're building Atom from source, pull down the latest version of master and re-build.
Using Safe Mode
A large part of Atom's functionality comes from packages you can install. Atom will also execute the code in your init script on startup. In some cases, these packages and the code in the init script might be causing unexpected behavior, problems, or performance issues.
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To determine if that is happening, start Atom from the terminal in safe mode:
This starts Atom, but does not load packages from ~/.atom/packages or ~/.atom/dev/packages and disables loading of your init script. If you can no longer reproduce the problem in safe mode, it's likely it was caused by one of the packages or the init script.
If removing or commenting out all content from the init script and starting Atom normally still produces the error, then try figuring out which package is causing trouble. Start Atom normally again and open the Settings View with Cmd+,Ctrl+,. Since the Settings View allows you to disable each installed package, you can disable packages one by one until you can no longer reproduce the issue. Restart Atom or reload Atom with Alt+Cmd+Ctrl+LCtrl+Shift+F5 after you disable each package to make sure it's completely gone.
When you find the problematic package, you can disable or uninstall the package. We strongly recommend creating an issue on the package's GitHub repository. The Atom FAQ has information on how to contact the maintainers of any Atom community package or theme.
Clearing Saved State
Atom saves a number of things about your environment when you exit in order to restore Atom to the same configuration when you next launch the program. In some cases the state that gets saved can be something undesirable that prevents Atom from working properly. In these cases, you may want to clear the state that Atom has saved.
Danger: Clearing the saved state permanently destroys any state that Atom has saved across all projects. This includes unsaved changes to files you may have been editing in all projects. This is a destructive action.
Clearing the saved state can be done by opening a terminal and executing:
Reset to Factory Defaults
In some cases, you may want to reset Atom to 'factory defaults', in other words clear all of your configuration and remove all packages. This can easily be done by opening a terminal and executing:
Once that is complete, you can launch Atom as normal. Everything will be just as if you first installed Atom.
Tip: The command given above doesn't delete the old configuration, just puts it somewhere that Atom can't find it. If there are pieces of the old configuration you want to retrieve, you can find them in the ~/.atom-backup%USERPROFILE%.atom-backup directory.
Check for Linked Packages
If you develop or contribute to Atom packages, there may be left-over packages linked to your ~/.atom/packages or ~/.atom/dev/packages directories. You can use the apm links command to list all linked packages:
You can remove links using the apm unlink command:
See apm links --help and apm unlink --help for more information on these commands.
Tip: You can also use apm unlink --all to easily unlink all packages and themes.
Check for Incompatible Packages
If you have packages installed that use native Node modules, when you upgrade to a new version of Atom, they might need to be rebuilt. Atom detects this and through the incompatible-packages package displays an indicator in the status bar when this happens.
If you see this indicator, click it and follow the instructions.
Check Atom and Package Settings
In some cases, unexpected behavior might be caused by settings in Atom or in one of the packages.
Open Atom's Settings View with Cmd+,Ctrl+,, the Atom > PreferencesFile > PreferencesEdit > Preferences menu option, or the 'Settings View: Open' command from the Command Palette.
Check Atom's settings in the Settings View, there's a description of most configuration options in the Basic Customization section. For example, if you want Atom to hide the invisible symbols representing whitespace characters, disable the 'Show Invisibles' option.
Some of these options are also available on a per-language basis which means that they may be different for specific languages, for example JavaScript or Python. To check the per-language settings, open the settings for the language package under the Packages tab in the Settings View, for example the language-javascript or language-python package.
Since Atom ships with a set of packages and you can also install additional packages yourself, check the list of packages and their settings. For instance, if you'd like to get rid of the vertical line in the middle of the editor, disable the Wrap Guide package. And if you don't like it when Atom strips trailing whitespace or ensures that there's a single trailing newline in the file, you can configure that in the whitespace package's settings.
Check Your Configuration
You might have defined some custom styles, keymaps or snippets in one of your configuration files. In some situations, these personal hacks might be causing the unexpected behavior you're observing so try clearing those files and restarting Atom.
Check Your Keybindings
If a command is not executing when you press a key combination or the wrong command is executing, there might be an issue with the keybinding for that combination. Atom ships with the Keybinding Resolver, a neat package which helps you understand what key Atom saw you press and the command that was triggered because of it.
Show the keybinding resolver with Cmd+.Ctrl+. or with 'Keybinding Resolver: Show' from the Command palette. With the Keybinding Resolver shown, press a key combination:
The Keybinding Resolver shows you a list of keybindings that exist for the key combination, where each item in the list has the following:
- the command for the keybinding
- the CSS selector used to define the context in which the keybinding is valid
- the file in which the keybinding is defined
The keybindings are listed in two colors. All the keybindings that are matched but not executed are shown in gray. The one that is executed, if any, is shown in green. If the command you wanted to trigger isn't listed, then a keybinding for that command hasn't been loaded.
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If multiple keybindings are matched, Atom determines which keybinding will be executed based on the specificity of the selectors and the order in which they were loaded. If the command you wanted to trigger is listed in the Keybinding Resolver, but wasn't the one that was executed, this is normally explained by one of two causes:
The key combination was not used in the context defined by the keybinding's selector
For example, you can't trigger the keybinding for the
tree-view:add-filecommand if the Tree View is not focused. https://bronfortnorta1979.mystrikingly.com/blog/can-apple-bluetooth-keyboard-work-with-windows.There is another keybinding that took precedence
This often happens when you install a package which defines keybindings that conflict with existing keybindings. If the package's keybindings have selectors with higher specificity or were loaded later, they'll have priority over existing ones.
Atom loads core Atom keybindings and package keybindings first, and user-defined keybindings last. Since user-defined keybindings are loaded last, you can use your keymap.cson file to tweak the keybindings and sort out problems like these. See the Keymaps in Depth section for more information.
If you notice that a package's keybindings are taking precedence over core Atom keybindings, it might be a good idea to report the issue on that package's GitHub repository. The Atom FAQ has information on how to contact the maintainers of any Atom community package or theme.
Check Font Rendering Issues
You can determine which fonts are being used to render a specific piece of text by using the Developer Tools. To open the Developer Tools press Alt+Cmd+ICtrl+Shift+I. Once the Developer Tools are open, click the 'Elements' tab. Use the standard tools for finding the element containing the text you want to check. Once you have selected the element, you can click the 'Computed' tab in the styles pane and scroll to the bottom. The list of fonts being used will be shown there:
Check for Errors in the Developer Tools
When an unexpected error occurs in Atom, you will normally see a red notification which provides details about the error and allows you to create an issue on the right repository:
Not all errors are logged with a notification so if you suspect you're experiencing an error but there's no notification, you can also look for errors in the developer tools Console tab. To access the Console tab, press Alt-Cmd-ICtrl-Shift-I to open developer tools and then click the Console tab:
If there are multiple errors, you can scroll down to the bottom of the panel to see the most recent error. Or while reproducing an error, you can right click in the Console tab panel, select Clear console to remove all Console output, and then reproduce the error to see what errors are logged to the Console tab.
Note: When running in Dev Mode, the developer tools are automatically shown with the error logged in the Console tab.
Find Crash Logs
When Atom crashes, you will find a crash dump in Console.app. You can launch Console.app using Spotlight or you can find it in /Applications/Utilities/Console.app. Once you have launched the program, you can find the latest crash dump by following these instructions:
- Click 'User Reports' in the left-most column
- Find the latest entry in the middle column that starts with
Atomand ends with.crash
Once you have the crash dump, you can save it to send in later if it is needed for debugging.
When Atom crashes, you will find a crash dump inside your %TEMP%Atom Crashes directory. It will be the newest file with the .dmp extension. Once you have the crash dump, you can save it to send in later if it is needed for debugging.
When Atom crashes, it should write a core dump if system settings permit. In order to find whether the core dump is written and to where, consult the documentation for your distribution of Linux. Once you have the core dump, you can save it to send in later if it is needed for debugging.
Diagnose Startup Performance
If Atom is taking a long time to start, you can use the Timecop package to get insight into where Atom spends time while loading.
Timecop displays the following information:
- Atom startup times
- File compilation times
- Package loading and activation times
- Theme loading and activation times
If a specific package has high load or activation times, you might consider reporting an Issue to the maintainers. You can also disable the package to potentially improve future startup times.
Diagnose Runtime Performance
If you're experiencing performance problems in a particular situation, your Issue reports will be more valuable if you include a saved profile from Chrome's CPU profiler that gives some insight into what is slow.
To run a profile, open the Developer Tools with Alt+Cmd+ICtrl+Shift+I. From there:
- Click the Profiles tab
- Select 'Collect JavaScript CPU Profile'
- Click 'Start'
Once that is done, then perform the slow action to capture a recording. When finished, click 'Stop'. Switch to the 'Chart' view, and a graph of the recorded actions will appear. You can save and post the profile data by clicking 'Save' next to the profile's name in the left panel.
To learn more, check out the Chrome documentation on CPU profiling.
Profiling Startup Performance
If the time for loading the window looks high, you can create a CPU profile for that period using the --profile-startup command line flag when starting Atom:
This will automatically capture a CPU profile as Atom is loading and open the Developer Tools once Atom loads. From there:
- Click the Profiles tab in the Developer Tools
- Select the 'startup' profile
- Click the 'Save' link for the startup profile
You can then include the startup profile in any Issue you report.
Check Your Build Tools
If you are having issues installing a package using apm install, this could be because the package has dependencies on libraries that contain native code. This means you will need to have a C++ compiler and Python installed to be able to install it. You can run apm install --check to see if the Atom package manager can build native code on your machine.
Check out the pre-requisites in the build instructions for your platform for more details.
Check if your GPU is causing the problem
If you encounter flickering or other rendering issues, you can stop Atom from using your Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) with the --disable-gpu Chromium flag to see if the fault lies with your GPU:
Chromium (and thus Atom) normally uses the GPU to accelerate drawing parts of the interface. --disable-gpu tells Atom to not even attempt to do this, and just use the CPU for rendering everything. This means that the parts of the interface that would normally be accelerated using the GPU will instead take slightly longer and render on the CPU. This likely won't make a noticeable difference, but does slightly increase the battery usage as the CPU has to work harder to do the things the GPU is optimized for.
Two other Chromium flags that are useful for debugging are --enable-gpu-rasterization and --force-gpu-rasterization:
--enable-gpu-rasterization allows other commands to determine how a layer tile (graphics) should be drawn and --force-gpu-rasterization determines that the Skia GPU backend should be used for drawing layer tiles (only valid with GPU accelerated compositing).
Be sure to use Chromium flags at the end of the terminal call if you want to use other Atom flags as they will not be executed after the Chromium flags e.g.:
Every developer's toolbox should have a light, straightforward text and source code editor. Finding the right source code editor can be a personal choice depending on your projects and list of requirements. A prominent code editor among macOS, Linux, and Windows users is Atom Text Editor.
If you're wondering how to use Atom Text Editor, or maybe on a more fundamental level, what it is, we've provided a comprehensive guide. In this article, we cover the basic questions like 'What is Atom Text Editor?' to how to use it, best practices, and some key differences between Atom and Sublime that can help you choose the right text editor for the job.
If you're just getting started with Atom Text Editor, keep reading for some best practices and tips to get going on your first project.
What is Atom Text Editor?
Back in 2014, Atom was developed and released by GitHub. This free, open-source code editor is self-labeled 'a hackable text editor for the 21st century'. And hackable, it is. Atom allows developers to fully customize the look, feel, and requirements to speed up their workflows.
https://elsamnyre1977.mystrikingly.com/blog/desktop-groups-1-3. However, Atom still allows developers to use it productively without ever touching a config file. A freshly downloaded version comes pre-loaded with eight syntax themes and four UI: two light and two dark. But, if none of the pre-installed themes interest you, Atom makes it easy and quick to install customized themes created by a third-party or to create one yourself.
Many developers love using Atom to create interactive and responsive web apps. Like many other text/code editors, Atom provides several benefits to make coding that much more straightforward. It offers:
- Customizable color schemes to make code more readable
- A wide selection of third-party plugins to catch coding errors
- Keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflows
- Automatic code indentation
- Highlighting language-specific syntax
- The ability to view your project's file and folder structure in a tree view
How To Use Atom Text Editor
If you're wondering how to use Atom Text Editor, the first step is downloading and installing. You can download a free copy of Atom for Mac, Windows, or Linux here: https://atom.io.
If you're running OS X Version 10.8 or later, after clicking 'download for Mac,' the Atom .zip file should appear in your downloads. If you double click it from your downloads folder, you may get an error message claiming your machine can't open 'Atom' because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.
Computer fb app. To work around this, simply drag the unzipped Atom folder into your applications folder. From there, right-click 'open,' and the application should open. Doing so mostly whitelists it to run, regardless of whether Apple can check it.
If you're running Windows 7 or later, you can visit the same page to download the most current version of Atom. It should appear in your downloads folder as a .zip file. Once you unzip the folder, double click and follow the prompts in the Window installer to get started.
Configuring Atom Text Editor
One of the keys to successfully using Atom, or any text editor for that matter, is establishing a neat and organized folder system. If you're wondering when to use Atom Text Editor, the answer is right after you've set up your folder system. As the size and number of your projects increase, the demand for file organization also increases. We strongly recommend getting this set-up before you start your first project; it's a lot easier to start with a sound organization system than having to back through all your files and figure out what's what, and where goes where.
Atom also offers a more in-depth Welcome Guide when you first open the program. We recommend going through this, however, here we'll help you set up your file structure to get you off to the races and coding in no time.
The first step is knowing precisely where new projects save to and where your old ones are. First, you'll want to start your directory (aka your folder in Windows' Explorer or Mac's Finder). We recommend naming this something sensical and straightforward like 'Projects.' Every time you start a new project, create a new folder inside your project directory. If you've been developing for any amount of time, you know that simple projects can turn into large projects spanning many, many folders in no time.
Atom conveniently provides a tree-view of each of your projects, making it easy to see and navigate. To get there, simply select 'File' from the menu bar then 'Add Project Folder.' This will take you to your file manager. Inside your 'projects' folder, we recommend creating a new folder called 'test' and opening it in Atom. This test folder will open in the side pane of Atom. From here, you can select file > New File, and a new file will appear it Atom's sidebar. You can then select file > Save As to name your new file. Don't forget to select the right file extension such as .html, .css, .csv, etc.
After you've set up your file structure, you're ready to start coding! Don't forget to save often to reduce the chances of losing all your work.
Atom Text Editor Best Practices
One of Atom Text Editor best practices that will save you much time is file extensions and syntax highlighting. Atom offers language-specific syntax highlighting to make your code easier to read. If you look at your index.html file, you'll notice the tags and texts show up in different colors. You can use the color scheme included with a theme you may have downloaded or create your own. If you're using a theme, the color scheme will vary depending on which coding language you're writing in.
If you're not happy with your current theme's color scheme, you can simply change your theme by navigating to file>Preferences to open up the settings window. From there, select 'themes.' You can select one of the 4 UI themes or eight syntax themes included with Atom or download a custom one. You can also explore creating your own if none of the available options appeal to what you need in a theme.
Another best practice to keep in mind is to avoid requiring too many modules straight. Instead, we recommend using lazy initialization and serialization since it can speed up your package start up.
You can also use the settings for 'soft wrap' and 'soft wrap at preferred line length' to find the line length you find easiest to use.
Software To Increase Efficiency With Atom
If you're working with a development team, you know one of the most significant issues that can eat up your time is communication. Communicating what needs to be changed, improved, or fixed can take up more time than the actual task at hand.
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Did you know more than 1 in 2 office workers say they would collaborate more if done visually with videos, images, or video calls?
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You can quickly annotate a screenshot, take a video with the screen recorder, or make a GIF to explain in mere seconds where that bug is or how that new feature in your app works.
But don't take my word for it! Try it out completely free and see if it works for you and your team.
Is Atom Better than Sublime?
What is the best text editor for developers? While there is no conclusive, one-size-fits-all answer, there are some pros and cons to both Atom and Sublime that every developer should consider. Depending on what you're building, and which features are imperative to you, this can help you decide on which text editor may be the best fit for you.
Sublime
First, let's take a look at Sublime. On the spectrum of convenience to extensibility, editors like Sublime fall closer to the convenience end. Sublime was released back in 2007 by former Google Engineer Jon Skinner. It's had almost a decade longer to mature than Atom. Like Atom, Sublime is available on OSX, Windows, and Linux. However, Sublime comes with a $70 license fee with its free trial.
Similarly to Atom, there are a plethora of themes and packages to install. However, to get started, you'll have to add the Sublime Package Control plugin before you install any packages. It's a small hurdle, but many developers feel this should automatically be installed by default.
If you're looking for a text editor that you can quickly install and get started with, Sublime might not be for you. Sublime only becomes a quick and powerful editor with the right plugins. To find out more about these plugins, we recommend checking out this blog:
The Top 10 Sublime Text Plugins For Web Developers 2020.
The usage of Atom can be subjective since it so strongly depends on which plugins you've installed. The upside is that if you're particular about your text editor, you can customize it precisely how you want it. The only downside is the time it can take installing plugins and customizing.
Atom
Even though it's new compared to Sublime, Atom has garnered a loyal following since its initial release in 2014. One of the first and most obvious benefits of Atom over Sublime is that it's free. Additionally, because Git Hub created Atom, the integration between the two is seamless.
If being able to customize your file structure is important to you, Atom makes this easy with its tree view of your file structure. You can simply drag and drop your folders to keep things organized.
One feature present in Atom and not sublime that many developers love is the live preview option. In the 'packages' option in the top menu bar, select atom-live-server option. This enables you to quickly and easily view your live web application in your browser with the simple click of a button. Remember, you'll need the atom-live-server package enabled to see these features.
So, is Atom better than Sublime? We'll let you decide for yourself, but we hope this quick comparison helps you get started in making the right decision to get started with either text editor.
Conclusion
Even though Atom is a relatively new software in the world of text editors, it's gained incredible traction since 2014 thanks to its ease of use and customization. It's become a quick favorite in the web development community.
We hope this guide to Atom helped you get started and answered your basic questions on how to use Atom Text Editor and some Atom Text Editor best practices to help you get started on your first project. If you haven't already, we recommended downloading Atom Text Editor and giving it a shot on your next project.
Don't forget to download a free version of CloudApp to help you and your team communicate visually with a few clicks of a button.
