The performance problems on a clean Atom install are incredibly vexing. Microsoft's Visual Studio Code is built on similar foundations and has great performance, so I don't think Atom's performance problems are fundamental.
I haven't used visual studio code myself, but does it use a mix of JavaScript and HTML to render and process the text? If so then isn't the major differences the algorithm choices for rendering and editing text?
This is my understanding of things:
- Electron is built on top of Chromium, where the technology was mainly driven by Google and their engineers.
- Vscode is based on Monaco which Erich Gamma and his team spear headed.
- Atom is based on work done by GitHub.
The analogy would be they both use Honda engines, but Microsoft appears to be able to use Honda's engine way more efficiently than GitHub.
The better analogy would be they are both built using Honda doors, but they each have completely different engines.
This is what I was trying to state. If performance issues were fundamentally tied to the use of Electron, then you would see that manifest itself in both packages.