Due to some compromised Github code signing certificates, I had to downgrade my installed Atom editor to version 1.60. Yesterday (Feb 11th), I suddenly found myself unable to open Atom, with it crashing immediately upon opening. I didn’t need it immediately then, so I waited to try the time tested method of restarting to see if that fixed the issue. It didn’t. I looked at the error info the crash popup showed and noticed it said “code signing error”. Since the Atom project has been archived, I worried perhaps their developer keys had expired and Apple would block it from running forever more. But some searching on the internet led me to the issue and the downgrade solution. Homebrew has already downgraded their version number, so I was easily able to reinstall with that. I have noticed no problems with the downgrade so far.
Since the sunsetting of Atom was announced, I’ve been working to move fully over to vim/MacVim, so I don’t entirely need Atom any more. Except that I use it’s automatic saving of in-memory files for a lot of draft blog posts and other temporary things that I don’t want to lose. I had lost some stuff because of relying on this feature in the past, but have continued the behavior. Anyway, since the downgrade, I have gotten everything back and will be able to save all to disk or whatever so there is no more risk of this happening again.