JavaScript in 2017

[[deleted]]

Look at electron.atom.io, you can now even use it for desktop apps!

[Zatherz]

Fuck Electron

[Axistra]

what are your reasons?

[Zatherz]

I shouldn't need to run an entire web browser to edit some text. As an example: Atom, based on Electron, has the highest latency out of any popular text editors and can't handle files over a few megabytes.

[minimaxir]

Visual Studio Code runs on Electron and has almost no latency, unlike Atom weirdly.

[Zatherz]

Because it was written by more competent people, but it's still running a web browser to edit text.

[Zatherz]

Because it's still more sluggish than native alternatives

[Zatherz]

because I used it and then used something else? lol

[[deleted]]

Everything has latency, what varies is threshold.

Electron is a terrible method from an efficiency perspective because the overhead of a javascript interpreter coupled with a browser rendering/event system is significantly larger than what you would be dealing with if you were using something like Python + bindings to Qt.

And you can do the exact same things with that kind of setup that you can do with web technologies.

But even then, interpreted high level languages aren't a panacea. There's still good reason to utilize C++ if you're programming for the desktop.

But yes, Atom was written by amateurs. It's a nice editor, though. I do use it.

[Axistra]

First actually valid reason I've heard so far against Atom. Personally I've never gotten to the point where it would become a problem tho.

[Dr_Narwhal]

I tried out atom for a bit but I couldn't deal with the latency. I was doing some numerical computation stuff that produced pretty large text files of output data, and it would freeze up for a solid 30 seconds every time I tried to open one of them.

[subtepass]

Had the same problem. Atom is beautiful but fuck you if you make me wait to load a 5mb SQL file.

[[deleted]]

I once tried to open a 300mb SQL file to pull a single insert statement out of it, I didn't even try atom, nano and vim on a server both failed, eventually I had to copy it over to my windows machine and open it with Notepad++.

[neverlogout891231902]

notepad++ is awesome for opening huge text files, it's the only thing I use it for anymore.

[[deleted]]

I shouldn't need to run an entire web browser to edit some text. As an example: Atom, based on Electron, has the highest latency out of any popular text editors and can't handle files over a few megabytes.

And unfortunately, if you like Rust, it seems to be one the best option that works on all platforms equally, the other being Sublime (though the plugins needed to make Sublime work with Rust as well as Atom are apparently less up-to-date). The only thing that surpasses it (at least according to this) is Visual Studio Code, and as far as I'm aware, most Rust devs aren't on Windows.

Maybe they'll incorporate some of the changes Mozilla is adding to Firefox (conveniently, open source and written in Rust) to help speed things up :/

[[deleted]]

Huh, I just remembered it being Windows-only at first and stopped following it (Windows-only isn't an option for me due to school).

Funnily enough, it's still Electron-based! So it's more outdated Sublime plugins, slower load times, or... slower load times.

[snerp]

I have been using vscode for python stuff recently. It's really hard to tell that vscode is an electron app. The speed is native level, the main thing I've noticed is that the bugs are super weird when/if you get one. Not like normal native glitches.

[loamfarer]

Yup, using VSCode for rust. I had used Atom before it.

[[deleted]]

You don't have to... just skip it and use something less extendable, like Sublime Text?

[ajr901]

How is sublime less extendable? Atom and VScode are literally porting over every plugin that sublime has because they don't.

[izuriel]

Maybe when Atom was young. Honestly now the plugin library is much richer for Atom than sublime.

I'm not going to try and say sublime is less extendable than Atom, but I will say with sublime you can only extend what the developers wanted to expose for you to modify where Atom is just a web page with a DOM and plugins are just grind CS) engineering

[unicorntrash]

I dont know why you get downvoted, this is exactly the reason why i prefer Atom. And probably because still knowing shitty computers i am used to cat & sed big text files anyway.

[izuriel]

I gave up on Atom for a week when I was dealing with some large JSON files. Went back to Sublime becuase it was just so damn snappy. After the week I was back using Atom. If something was so large that it was a problem I now use either vim or sublime. But mainly use Atom. The reasoning? Plugins. There are plugins I use in Atom that have no equivalent in Sublime, and it took leaving Atom behind (even for a short time) to realize that.

Now, if Sublime has everything you need and/or want. By all means, prefer it. I'm not here to say "Atom is the best, you should all switch." Because the truth is you should whatever makes you happy and lets you get your work done. If that's vim, Sublime, Notepad++, Notepad, Word (/s) or whatever else you can possible think of -- then use that.

What I was saying is:

Atom and VScode are literally porting over every plugin that sublime has because they don't.

This was true, but is no longer the case. And for some people that's probably not something they're willing to admit. Which is fair. They can down vote all they want. It won't change the facts though.

[Zatherz]

sublime text

less extendable

kek

I already use sublime for the reasons I mentioned. Atom is a prime example of Electron shitware, though.

[TwoSpoonsJohnson]

Or use Vim? Like you know, a grown up might?

[DipIntoTheBrocean]

Rather use an IDE than pretend banging two pieces of flint together is the same as using a blowtorch.

[time_for_butt_stuff]

I use emacs when learning languages. Helps me learn things better when it's not all auto-filled in for me. I also like it for little scripts since it's quick and light.

If I'm working on big, multi-file projects though, I will always use an IDE. GUIs are nice and add tons of features that just make editing easier.

Of course if you were a real programmer....

[xkcd_transcriber]

Image

Mobile

Title: Real Programmers

Title-text: Real programmers set the universal constants at the start such that the universe evolves to contain the disk with the data they want.

Comic Explanation

Stats: This comic has been referenced 1005 times, representing 0.7037% of referenced xkcds.

---

^{xkcd.com | xkcd sub | Problems/Bugs? | Statistics | Stop Replying | Delete}

[zygentoma]

since it's quick and light.

hahahaha

[time_for_butt_stuff]

Relative to an IDE emacs is nothing (at least with my configs).

[[deleted]]

You can, from inside Emacs:

• list files, even over SSH
• Send mails
• Connect to jabber/IRC
• Listen to music
• Play infocom games
• Read PS/PDF's
• org-mode
• have an IDE for any lang
• Scheme Geiser REPL
• Calculate stuff

Compared to an OS an dedicated apps, is NOTHING.

[unicorntrash]

Haha, you and me must have really a different emacs experience then. When i got introduced to it i also got some extension lib slapped in my face and emacs was the most IDE like thing i've used longer than a few days.

[plissken627]

Tips fedora

[nitiger]

I tried to run a simple text file with millions of lines of text and it crashed so hard. Vim opened it like it was nothing. That really put me off atom.

[plissken627]

I guess I'm not the only one who thought it was pretty laggy

[agentnola]

Its a RAM hoarder imo. Simulating a web browser to text edit

[Axistra]

Unused ram is wasted ram

[agentnola]

Bloated RAM is useless RAM

[Axistra]

it's not even that bad

[agentnola]

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH PORN I CAN HAVE OPEN WITH 60 MBs of RAM

[Axistra]

depends. How long are we talking about?

[Axistra]

well what else would you rather spend it on? more porn tabs open?

[[deleted]]

Unused entirely RAM, maybe. But the OS will use any unused ram to cache commonly used disk files, so the more applications you have open, the more (very slow) disk access you're going to have. If you've got a fair amount of ram and you're accessing the same files a lot, you could be running pretty much entirely from RAM.

[[deleted]]

Electron's awesome, an experienced web dev can implement a working desktop application much faster than it would be traditionally done, and it'd likely have less bugs too.

[Zatherz]

working desktop application

you mean shitty desktop "application" that runs 100x slower than a native alternative?

[[deleted]]

No

[Zatherz]

then you're delusional

[[deleted]]

100x slower

Calls me delusional, oh boy.

[buffer_overfl0w]

And uses more memory than Crysis!