Version 8 of open-source code editor Notepad++ brings Dark Mode and an ARM64 build, but bans Bing from web searches Version 8.0 of the popular Windows editor Notepad++ has arrived with new features including Dark Mode, a native build for ARM64, and optional new toolbar icons using the Fluent UI. Despite the seemingly unstoppable rise of Visual Studio Code, there is still a place for a fast and capable native code editor. Notepad++ is coded …
Just keep adding those +s.
My main editor for coding C#, C++ and C is MS visual studio, for anything else Notepad++.
XML, scripts, decompiled resource DLLs in fact anything outside C#, C++ and C. It is fast at loading files great for opening data like postscript and other printer languages.
+ lots of add ins for formatting.
Not a day goes by where I have not opened Notepad++.
I swapped to (paid) sublimetext when notepad++ played fully with a multi monitor setup.
I am glad that that bug, and (via github) markdown is finally supported because Sublimetext just autoinstalled version 4, invalidated my license and broke my extensions.
Hats off to Don Ho.
Isn't it amusing how people that do heavy text editing for anything other than DTP / Word are returning to Black screen / Coloured text. Rather than White screen and the inevitable white glare induced headaches? Anyone would think they have to look at crappy reflective glare-filled laptop monitors all day, every day...
People used to think I was weird for using dos edit right up to WinXP in preference to other editors stuffed into corporate build. I mean, features like a row and column display - cutting edge!
Notepad++ must have made a mark on someone in our IT organisation as someone has gone to the bother of paying to get it packaged. Definitely not arguing, it is one of my favourite windows programs. This is yet another improvement.
There was research done a long time ago (probably before Windows was a thing) that showed black on white (which was not the norm at that time) caused less eye strain than white (or green) on black.
But then, eggs were bad for you, then not, doctors used to say smoking was good for the chest and pregnant women used to get Guinness on the NHS...
That depends only on how your monitor is set, and the environment light intensity, distribution and direction.
Having a monitor set for photo editing - with brightness well set taking into account ambient light as well, instead of being at 250% as in most monitors, plus colour temperature at 6500K instead of 9000 and over which makes it too blue, white background is quite fine. Both natural light and artificial one are designed to come from one side, diffused, at the proper angle and with proper contrast around - something that unluckily not many places, especially offices, can deliver. I still find incredible how many working places are inundated with the wrong kind of light.
Especially for me because my sight depends on the size of the pupil - and with a black background it means it opens more and I see worse, incrementing eye strain, not decreasing it.
Yes, 100-120 nits maximum brightness, fairly accurate white point, ambient light coming from the side, and a flicker free monitor - it's very nice. Never felt the need for dark mode myself, I still find text less tiring to read black on white.
OTOH I understand the curved ultrawidescreen crowd using dark mode, if they are not hyper-focused on keeping their windows organized and sized to their liking.
The one redeeming feature of the lock-downs was that I had to sit in front of my nice "bought to be easy on the eyes" Eizo monitors rather than the crappy low cost LG ones at work. I'm aware that LG make the panels for Eizo but the difference is stark.
Notepad++ has a much smarter file loading mechanism than most similar applications, however this approach does have some drawbacks.
Most applications just load the entire file into memory, parse it and then display. Notepad++ initially only loads the start of the file into memory and displays this. While this works really well for opening very large files but if one needs to search the entire file or the (entire) file needs to be parsed for formatting reasons then the entire file needs to be loaded. This is still done in a reasonably efficient manner though, but this parsing will be slower - on the other hand if it's not required, then it doesn't matter.
"So it's not the prettiest editor."
Have to admit I'm a bit confused by this comment in the article. There's a small menu bar at the top, and then a blank page for writing text in. What exactly could be done to make this somehow look pretty? It's a text editor, not an art installation. Anything unnecessary added on top would just get in the way. But there are various optional features that can be used if you happen to want them. It looks exactly as pretty as I would expect a blank page for writing on should look.
But it hasn't - all he's done is remove it from the defaults[1]. It can be added back manually.
It's hardly as if he's proactively looking to see if someone's using it and refuses.
[1] https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/commit/06657c82b3b9a1871c483982282f046b1ac7b3be
Tank Man's image, plus all web content relating to such, is fully available on DDG now. I just checked. It is hard to say what originally happened and why: did some China-facing PFY in Microsoft get overzealous with the settings, rolling out China's restrictions worldwide?
I have been using Notepad++ ever since Crimson Editor stopped being developed, and do not regret it one moment. While arguably NP++ has some rough spots, it does do an amazing amount of tasks really well, with minimal CPU & RAM usage. I generally use NP++ in split-screen mode, with side-by-side editing of documents. Together with the Explorer plugin, it's pretty much my go-to for anything on Windows that needs editing or programming.
Over the years I have drifted away from behemoths like Visual Studio (VS 2012 was a kick in the teeth) and don't get me started on monstrosities like websites pretending to be real desktop applications, like VS Code. These days I find myself comfortably switching between NP++ on Windows and a Vim session in a (remote) Linux Bash session.
It's maybe not flashy or cool, but when you just want to get stuff done, you go for something that does the job without causing a fuss, and that's definitely what NP++ is. It's not supposed to be exciting, because it just works and has a load of plugins that make it work even better :)
> "When a search engine does the censorship instead of its job, the search result loses its quality and it's not reliable anymore,"
So why is an editor now censoring the user from free choice?
Don't get me wrong, I love Notepad++, but isn't this guy being just as bad as Bing by being a censor and removing free choice? Actually worse as Bing fixed their hiccup within a few hours.
I won't down vote you, because hey, personal preference; but I use Visual Studio and Notepad++
Visual Studio for the IDE, code hinting etc. Notepad++ for log files (some very big), XML and everything else (with a few plugins added). NP++ is fast, has a "classic" interface and does it's job very well.
Also NP++ is free Sublime isn't. When I trialled Sublime (a while ago I admit) it seemed more about "style" than usefulness.
So I'm a zombie....
I use vi because it's the first editor I used on Unix and it's easy to do some fancy search and replace stuff with. I can easily navigate around the command line and open files... works when I'm using remote SSH. But it's not for everyone as the learning curve is high.
I use notepad++ to quickly load huge files and simple text as well as unicode conversions.
I also use VisualStudio on windows as an ide.
I also use CLion and qtcreator.
I pick what's easy to use for the job at hand.
The best software out there is not pretty, but it is intuitive and functional, and certainly doesn't change its look every time a new manager who wants their piss-stench over everything, you know the types, new, wants to mark territory, etc. we’ve all met these pricks at least once in our lives
Nobody gives a toss about UI tweaking, it just means I am forced to relearn something I already knew
I use Notepad++ for all text file editing / viewing that is not part of a software project.
I wouldn't use it for comparing files or source code editing though.
For source code, I prefer Source Insight, but usually end up using Visual Studio for C# and other MS software projects and Pycharm for Python.
For file comparison, Beyond Compare has been my favourite for almost 2 decades and is still in my view the best.
FWIW I hate the confusing MS ribbon and similarly confusing Flat UI style. Unfortunately I have to do everything on MS platforms on most contracts.
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