Atom and Hydrogen Introduction¶

What is Atom?¶

“A hackable text editor for the 21st Century.” - Atom’s slogan

Atom is a popular and highly customizable text file editor, most commonly used to write code.

Text Editor vs. IDE¶

Programmers choose to write their code in one of two kinds of programs, each with different features:

Text Editor	IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
Like Notepad++	Like Eclipse
Fast	Run code in the IDE
Takes up less space	Restructure messy code
	Check code syntax
	And many more…

Atom starts out as a blazingly fast text editor with unlimited customization. Because of that, you can install exactly how many plug-ins you need to add features that are normally unique to IDE’s, allowing you to strike the balance between a text editor and an IDE.

Why use Atom?¶

Atom works well with Git and Github, which serve a similar purpose as Google Drive, but for code.
Atom is open source, fulfilling AguaClara’s commitment to open source technology.
Atom can be automatically customized to be ready for use in AguaClara.
Atom lets you collaborate with other team members on the same document in real time, much like with Google Drive.

We’ve omitted an Atom-specific tutorial because it’s so easy to use. But if you want to learn more about Atom, check out the Atom Flight Manual.

Markdown in Atom¶

Atom is useful for editing Markdown files and preview them nicely:

Open Atom and open an already existing Markdown file or create one using the .md extension.
Press Ctrl + Shift + M to open a formatted preview on the right.
- If a preview didn’t show up, review the instructions on Installing on MacOS or Installing on Windows.

All Markdown files are simply text files with the ``.md`` file extension.

What is Hydrogen?¶

An Atom package that lets you run Python code within Markdown files.

If you have previous experience with Jupyter Notebooks, you’ll find many of the same features with Hydrogen:

Running code interactively
Checking data from experiments
Performing calculations
Drawing data plots

Why use Hydrogen?¶

Hydrogen allows you to complement the information in your reports with Python code.
Hydrogen and Python are open source, fulfilling AguaClara’s devotion to open source software.

If you’re new to Python, or would like a refresher, start with Python Basics.

If you have experience with Python, go to Python Packages.