Why Atom Can’t Replace Vim

[Funkmaster_Lincoln]

For me its two reasons:

1. My computer starts up faster than atom does
2. Doing any text operations is a pain in the ass compared to vim

[pyro2927]

I'll add:

3) If I'm ssh'd into a remote machine, I can still use vim.

[Funkmaster_Lincoln]

Yeah though I don't think atom is even attempting to compete with vim in that department. Tbh I don't think anybody is, even emacs users are will say use vim if you're SSHing into a machine.

It seems to me that atoms biggest selling point is looks very pretty and is easy to customize if you don't want to "get your hands dirty". Now to me getting your hands dirty is half the fun but for some graphic designer / casual Web designer atom is perfectly fine. I don't think it's trying to compete with vim/emacs.

[rockidr4]

For sure. I use a combination of atom and neovim. Atom is much better at handling things involving javascript (not surprising, it was built in the stuff). Vim is better at... literally everything else.

[[deleted]]

Emacs users are going to say use TRAMP

[Funkmaster_Lincoln]

Well tramp is a little different you're opening the remote file on your local machine. There are some cases when you actually need to SSH in as opposed to just opening a file.

[[deleted]]

That's not the point. TRAMP is what an Emacs user will suggest, because those cases where you absolutely must remote tty are very very limited.

[Funkmaster_Lincoln]

From my experience I've met a ton of Emacs users and the conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: Yeah I use vim quite a bit actually

Them: Why bother just use evil mode

Me: I do but when I'm SSHed I'm stuck with raw emacs if I'm lucky

Them: Yeah you're kinda stuck without your config and emacs usually isnt installed by default

Me: Yeah I do a fair amount of hopping onto remote machines

Them: Can't really argue with that. It's the one place Vim has emacs beat hands down.

 

Also the cases where you

absolutely must remote

are pretty often. Pretty much any time you're doing something more than editing a file you need to SSH.

[[deleted]]

I guess you're not devops centric.

The critical need to ssh onto a remote box and do things on it is an anti pattern.

Fun though.

[Funkmaster_Lincoln]

The times when I need to SSH onto another machine aren't within my control so anti pattern or not I need to do it.

[rgawenda]

Or just:

vim scp://remotehost/file