Let me say, I have used Notepad++ for years and have been quite happy; however, I was looking for something a bit more functional and catered to how I programmed. First, it had to be easier on my eyes for those long nights programming and editing, better syntax highlighting, and couldn’t lose any functionality. Enter the Github Atom Editor.

Atom is a free, open-source text and source code editor for macOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows with support for plug-ins written in Node.js, embedded Git Control, that was developed by GitHub. Atom is a desktop application built using web technologies. The editor is without a doubt easier on your eyes and highlighting is second to none for a free editor. It also can be used with conjunction with Github, which is the latest way to share projects, code, and pretty much anything regarding projects. If you have not heard of Github by now, it’s very popular and companies everywhere have moved to it to share documentation and code.

I have been using it for about 6 months and have kept Notepad++ installed just in case there were any deal breakers, which there have been none. I will note it takes a little longer to load, but nothing offensively long. I can set it to load a project directory, for example my website directory, and it makes easy work of editing multiple pages. There are tons of add-ons that the community creates, so customization is easy. It has an issue with opening multiple files at once, that is my biggest complaint. I feel it should support multiple file drag and drop, and it doesn’t yet. I sent the devs a message, so hopefully they will change this in a later build.

All in all, it’s my new editor and if you are looking to get something better, in my opinion, than Notepad++, look no further.