PROGRAMMING
My Top 15 Atom Packages
Hackable Packages for a Hackable Editor
Atom is a hackable text editor for the 21st century. As compared to other text editors, it gives much more power to the plugins. Much of the editor’s functionality comes from plugins, and sometimes, plugins even have the power to create an entirely new app. Perhaps that’s what makes it “hackable”. For more on hacking atom, Atom has a section in its manual on it which can be accessed by clicking the link here. This article will cover a whole list of Atom packages which will hopefully come in handy for you at some point. 😃
TL;DR
- file-icons by file-icons
- wakatime by wakatime
- linter by steelbrain
- minimap by atom-minimap
- pigments by abe33
- highlight-selected by richrace
- atom-clock by b3by
- project-manager by danielbrodin
- autocomplete by atom
- teletype by atom
- git-plus by akonwi
- atom-beautify by Glavin001
- atom-discord by HelloWorld017
- auto-update-packages by yujinakayama
- sync-settings by atom-community
Themes
1. file-icons by file-icons
I’m personally a fan of Atom’s One Dark theme, so I don’t really recommend anything else. Some icons for the folders, though, would be helpful, so here are some!
Productivity
2. wakatime by wakatime
What else would be more productive than knowing the amount of time you spend working? The wakatime extension for Atom tracks the amount of time you spend coding for Atom, but there are other extensions for Visual Studio Code, etc. as well, so that you can track yourself across multiple editors.
If you use Visual Studio Code, why not check out my other story below 😄:
3. linter by steelbrain
Linter is a base linter provider for the hackable Atom Editor. Additionally, you need to install a specific linter for your language. You will find a full list on atomlinter.github.io.
It provides a top-level API to its consumer so that they can visualize errors and other types of messages with ease.
4. minimap by atom-minimap
Preview your full code at the side of your editor. Always nice to locate yourslef in a project and see the linters working.
Settings include:
- Display code highlights
- Display minimap on the left
- Character height (1px, 2px, 4px)
- Character width (1px, 2px)
- Interline
- Opacity
- Scroll indicator
And many more!
5. pigments by abe33
Preview your chosen colours in a simple yet beautiful manner. As an added benefit, you can even search for colours, change #hex to rgba, etc.
6. highlight-selected by richrace
Double click to highlight anything. No need to drag your cursor around anymore! 🎉
7. atom-clock by b3by
Displays a customisable clock in your status bar. Never lose track of time again!
⭐️ Right click the clock to copy the current time to your clipboard.
Formats include:
H:mm(24-hour)h:mm a(12-hour)DD/MM/YYYY, H:mm(short date format)MMMM Do, dddd, h:mm:ss a(long date format)[Quarter] Q, MMMM Do YYYY, ddd, h:mm a(space waster format)
Not just that but it also supports a range of languages!
8. project-manager by danielbrodin
Opening projects in Atom can be quite a pain, especially if you’re working on multiple projects at a time. Fret not, in comes project-manager! Manage and open all your project folders in one place without ever having to touch Finder or File Explorer again! (unless you’re opening a new project, of course 🤷♂️)
9. autocomplete by atom
Get a list of autocomplete options with ctrl + space.
Remote Work and Source Control
10. teletype by atom
Google Docs, but for code.
11. git-plus by akonwi
Git, built right into Atom. Commit, merge, push, rebase, all without the terminal.
Aesthetics
12. atom-beautify by Glavin001
Beautify HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, C, C++, C#, Objective-C, CoffeeScript, TypeScript, Coldfusion, SQL, and more in Atom.
Others
13. atom-discord by HelloWorld017
With the magical powers of Discord Rich Presence, show others which project you’re working on on Atom with atom-discord.
14. auto-update-packages by yujinakayama
Always keep your packages up to date!
15. sync-settings by atom-community
Now that you’ve got your editor set up, time to sync everything to GitHub so that you can transfer your preferences easily across every Atom instance you have. Have fun!
