[nhunzaker]

As a front-end web developer that has used Emacs for several years, I often feel the pull to Atom. It draws very clear, direct inspiration from Emacs.

Spacemacs is an improvement, however I think it the biggest advantage it (and any other modern text editor) has over Emacs is the on-boarding process and general beginner friendliness.

Beyond that, Atom's modes for front-end web development are pretty top notch. We have js2-mode, and web-mode in Emacs, but the overall experience in Atom is often superior. For example, it's extremely easy to quickly install a color-picker, pull open a CSS file, and use a color wheel to make a hex value slightly darker. More, the color-picker UI feels tightly integrated into the editor.

On the surface, this feels trite, however the slow build-up of user friendly developer conveniences adds up.

The general command over the entire environment continues to draw me back to Emacs. Still, I continue to watch for when Atom can achieve this.