GitHub has developed a browser-based text editor that developers can use for writing and editing code. The company published the formal introduction of Atom in its blog today. Atom is designed to combine the best features of several text editors available in the market, according to VentureBeat.

GitHub's announcment read: "Sublime and TextMate offer convenience but only limited extensibility. On the other end of the spectrum, Emacs and Vim offer extreme flexibility, but they aren't very approachable and can only be customized with special-purpose scripting languages."

As of September, GitHub already has 4 million developers using its tool. Atom could become a significant addition to the firm's portfolio. The text editor could help further increase GitHub's user number, although it will still have to compete with its rival code editors such as Cloud9, the report detailed.

Atom can be customized by developers. They can also add packages and user interfaces to the program. As of now, it is still in beta, but developers can request an invitation. It is not yet known if GitHub will launch the full code using an open-source license. The company has not yet announced the cost of the service after it emerges from beta, VentureBeat reported.