There are many well-formulated opinions either way in this thread, but I have to agree with Mark, Bennet and others.
FYI, for a new undergraduate Python course on Windows lab computers we chose between two candidate editors: atom and notepad++. I found atom a bit heavy and slow in this context and am quite satisfied with notepad++ : e.g. color coding of keywords , "folding" of code sections. Regards, Olav On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 4:44 AM, Ashwin Srinath <[email protected]> wrote: > Just my 2c: Notepad can safely be substituted for nano for Windows > users. No additional setup required, and it's something learners are > likely already familiar with. In my opinion Atom is a bit overkill for > what we are asking learners to do, i.e., create small files, edit > existing files and write commit messages. > > Thanks, > Ashwin > > > > > > On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 10:14 PM, Azalee Bostroem <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Hi Raniere, > > > > Thanks for bringing this up. I think it is always good to re-examine our > > options as the field is constantly changing. I agree that Nano isn’t > ideal > > and its always disappointing to tell students we’re going to use it for > the > > workshop and they will likely never use it again. My big goal is to have > > students on all platforms do the same thing when I’m teaching - so that > what > > I demonstrate applies to everyone. I’m not familiar with some of the > > terminology in your pro/con list, so apologies if you covered this: > > > > during the git lesson, can students set the editor to atom or does some > > pre-configuration need to happen? If there is configuration, is that > > something we can easily put in the installation instructions? > > can I open it from the command line (without setting something in my bash > > profile)? I don’t want each platform to launch it differently. I also > worry > > about the overhead with the initial save - making sure everyone uses the > > same name so they can continue to type what you are typing for the > remainder > > of the lesson. > > > > > > Having to switch between windows is a very big con to me, and I’m with > Noam > > (and others) in that I’d like to know that it isn’t going to be too much > of > > a cognitive load for students. My experience, even with Nano, is that > there > > is so much that is brand new when learning git, that people often get > lost > > between changing text in the editor, saving, then committing with a > commit > > message and I fear that changing windows will make this even worse. > > > > > > -Azalee > > > > > > > > > > On Mar 30, 2017, at 2:58 AM, Raniere Silva <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > > > today at the workshop, > > one of the our Windows learners asked me why after quit nano the > > previous command weren't available when scroll the window up. > > The learner was very annoyed to not be able to see the history. > > > > I would like to motion to change nano with Atom as the > recommended/default > > text editor for our workshops. I don't want to start yet another flame > war, > > we already had lots and lots of discussion about this, > > so I will summarise the benefits and drawback of my proposal. > > I will ask that before suggest another text editor instead of Atom, > > stop and think that the text editor will benefit novice learners > > instead of just make your life easy as instructor because you use X on > > your daily work. (I don't use Atom!) > > > > # Benefits > > > > - Is open source. > > - (Just) works in Windows, Mac and Linux. > > - Easy to install in Windows, Mac and Linux. > > - "All versions" are available to Windows, Mac and Linux. > > > > Some software, e.g. Skype, works in Windows, Mac and Linux but > > different versions are available to different OS. > > - Configure PATH to be accessible from Git Bash. > > > > No need for extra configuration or our script to fix PATH. > > - Well mantained and supported. > > - Syntax highlight out of the box (AFAIK). > > - Lots of plugins for learners that decide to keep using Atom. > > > > AFAIK there is a plugin that allow learners to use Atom > > to edit remote files, e.g. on clusters. > > - Beautiful interface. > > > > # Drawback > > > > - Learners and instructions will need to switch windows. > > > > # (My own) conclusions > > > > Replace nano with Atom will avoid many of the our issues during the > > workshop, such as "we will use nano but if you don't have nano you can > > use X", and reduce the volunteer work that we need to maintain the > > quality of our workshops. The price that we will need to pay is switch > > windows during the workshop. > > > > Thanks, > > Raniere > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss >
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