Some time ago that proved one of my most popular posts. At the time I was looking for a text editor that was extensible, open source, and that I could optimize for a writers setup, not just for coding. Atom has vastly improved since that post, but still suffers from a lot of reliability, memory, and CPU issues, thanks to the fact it’s built upon web technologies, not native code. I wrote a post on how to configure the Atom text editor for (technical) writing Also since that post, Microsoft released , that, despite having similar origins to Atom, somehow feels more polished and is more performant. On initial inspection, it’s still more optimized for coding than writing, but I thought it was time I dug into to how it compared to Atom from a writer’s perspective. To do this, I refer mostly to the original post and recreate the same sub-headings and needs. Since I first wrote that post some features in Atom changed, as did my needs, so this post won’t stick entirely to the original. Visual Studio Code Making Visual Studio Code Look Nice(r) Themes I (still) prefer light themes, and my theme of choice in Atom, isn’t available in Visual Studio Code (VSC), to be fair the Atom version hasn’t had an update in a while either. I haven’t settled on a code and UI theme yet (one and the same in VSC), but am fluctuating between them. one-o-eight syntax Quiet Light, a default theme in VSC. , pretty much a clone on the Atom light theme. Atom One Light And . Visual Studio for Mac Light Theme Increase Readability VSC highlights lines by default, and you can configure the setting to suit most needs. Beautify and Code Formatting VSC beautifies most common code formats by default, but, for text formats, you need an extension, such as for markdown; I couldn’t find anything for other common technical writing markup languages. remark For those of you looking to write freely, like a normal human being with lines as long as you want, but you have to submit your changes to systems (or people) that want lines set at a certain length, there’s the . It’s not as easy to setup and use as the and packages in Atom but does the job. rewrap extension break line length multi-wrap guide There’s no pigments for VSC, but is slightly similar. extension colorize Language Formatters, Linters, and Snippets VSC handles most of the code formatters and languages you need, but focusing specifically on language support for languages used in writing, there are: . reStructuredText , especially . LaTeX formatters and tools LaTeX workshop Markdown A special mention for Markdown as it’s the format I (and many others) use the most. The default markdown preview in VSC isn’t bad and has a bonus in that the preview stays in sync with the editing pane, unlike in Atom. Other useful extensions are: . Markdown lint . Markdown Shortcuts Project Management VSC has good project management features of a sort built-in, but to truly replicate the Atom package, there is . project manager project manager To add path autocompletion like Atom’s , try . autocomplete paths path intellisense Thankfully the wonderful has a VSC alternative in the (almost overwhelming) . Moreover, to emulate the Atom package is the extension, which naturally adds a bunch of other functionality. git time-machine GitLens pull requests GitHub Write Better OK, now down to what matters most. Thankfully VSC has a , an , and, for the more adventurous, and . None of these are that popular, which maybe says something about current VSC users. write-good linter alex linter vale textlint Spell checking is curiously absent in VSC by default, but there are many options available including , (which uses hunspell for maximum global compatibility) and . I’m still testing which one(s) I prefer, but spell right or spell checker are better suited to writers’ needs. code spell checker spell checker spell right , well, shows you a word count. Word count That wonderful Swiss army knife, Pandoc, for generating a wide variety of file formats. has an extension Bonus What does VSC have that Atom doesn’t? What does one do differently than the other? Glad you asked. Several extensions. Swagger/Open API Many of the linting packages integrate better into the VSC interface/the OS interface, whereas Atom has a hotchpotch of solutions from developers. But not all extensions follow this pattern and sometimes follow their own paradigms. Don’t know what you’re looking for when it comes to extensions? VSC has a handy feature that offers suggestions based on the file extension, meaning you often find useful tidbits you had no idea existed. Atom packages often have their settings in code, but all VSC settings are in config files. It has a friendly interface for editing them, but it’s not as user-friendly. quite I also found that VSC extensions were occasionally as unreliable and inconsistent as Atom packages, tied with the last point, this could be configuration issues, but it’s not as easy to know what settings are available. What Should I Use Chris? I knew you were going to ask that. Atom starts as a much plainer text editor that you enhance with packages, Visual Studio Code has more features by default but aims most at coders, and you can’t disable them all. I am only starting to try VSC more for my text editing, so am still learning the peculiarities and subtleties of using it. I dunno, play with both, see what you prefer. Let me know your experiences in the comments below. Originally published at dzone.com .

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