GitHub Open Sources Atom Code Editor


GitHub’s Atom code editor has released its source code under an MIT license. The latter was chosen for its permissive nature and it allows commercial use of the project. Atom aims to be the ultimate code editor for developers that is fully customizable by its users.

The ultimate product cobbles together several web technologies including HTML, CSS and Node.js with a provision for extending it via add-ons. During its beta stage, Atom Core had not been available as open source code.

Opening up the code to developers sets the ground for the creation of a community around the project. This borrows from the success of other editors including Vim and Emacs which have both grown as a result of thriving communities.