Freefem++ is a language that allows the numerical solving of partial differential equations. Useful to rapidly create some illustrations, Freefem++ is widely used in mathematical research.

It is possible to install an “official” development environment for Freefem++. The advantage is that it is then faster to execute a script. However, this IDE has a huge number of disadvantages. That’s why I prefer using another editor.

I have the habit to use Atom, so I wanted to use it. There was still an issue to fix: syntax highlighting. In fact, Atom is not really developed for mathematics.

That was the occasion for me to develop my first Atom package. Called language-freefem, it adds the support of Freefem++ language in Atom, with syntax highlighting.

The styles are standards so you won’t be disoriented: numbers will appear as they do in other languages, so do the instructions, etc.

All you have to do to use syntax highlighting for Freefem++ in Atom is installing the package like any other. Them, all is automatic: Atom will automatically detect that you are editing a Freefem++ file if you save it with the .edp extension.