Atom¶
You can use the Atom text and code editor with many MousePaw Media projects. While this isn’t our officially recommended IDE, many of our staff members use it.
Note
We have found that Atom’s support for C++ leaves a lot to be desired. Consider Visual Studio Code for C++ instead.
Installing¶
Atom is a FOSS multi-language text and code editor with a lot of nifty features. It’s also completely customizable, allowing you to add functionality and themes from the built-in packages. (If you’re a programmer, you can also write your own!)
Installing on Linux¶
If you’re on Ubuntu, you can install Atom from the main package repository:
$ sudo apt install atom
Alternatively, on most Linux systems, you can install from Snapcraft:
$ sudo snap install atom
Or, you can install from Flatpak on most Linux systems:
$ flatpak run io.atom.Atom
On other operating systems, you can install Atom from the official packages on the Atom website.
Installing on Mac¶
On Mac, you can go to the official Atom releases page
and download the file atom-mac.zip
for the latest stable release.
Extract the ZIP file, and drag the Atom
application into your
Applications
folder.
Installing on Windows¶
On Windows, you can go to the official Atom releases page
and download the file AtomSetup.exe
for the latest stable release.
Run the executable to launch the Atom installer.
Configuring Atom¶
Atom has a lot of pretty impressive features that I won’t be covering in the tutorial. Consider taking some time to play around with it.
You’ll want to install some packages to improve Atom’s handling of various file types and languages. Go to Install on the left hand menu.
, and then selectWe recommend the following packages:
autocomplete-clang
autocomplete-cmake
autocomplete-python
autocomplete-xml
language-cmake
language-python
language-restructuredText
linter
linter-cppcheck
linter-pylint
linter-xmllint
python-indent
python-tools
rst-preview-pandoc
You may also consider the following helpful packages:
cursor-history
file-icons
highlight-selected
minimap
minimap-bookmarks
minimap-codeglance
minimap-cursorline
minimap-findandreplace
minimap-highlight-selected
minimap-selected
todo-show
Each of those packages has some settings you can play with under Settings on the package you want to modify.
. ClickAt minimum, you’ll want to edit the settings for linter-pylint, setting the following:
Executable:
pylint3
RC File:
%p/pylintrc