Notepad++: January 2008 Archives

Notepad++ is working out pretty well so far. The latest Windows text editor in my quest for a better, freer text-editing experience, Notepad++ is under the GPL license, so it's free and open-source. It's also not a port of a Linux/Unix editor like Geany, and the annoying Geany bug -- in which extra linefeeds (or carriage returns?) are inserted in Windows (CR/LF) formatted text files -- is thankfully not present in Notepad++.

In fact, Notepad++ allows you to set whether you want your text files to be in Windows (CR/LF), Unix (LF) or Mac (CR???) format. Since the files look the way I want (and cut/paste that way) in the default Windows format, I'm pretty happy. I like the way you can change the case of letters -- ctrl-U for lower-case, ctrl-shift-U for upper. I'll have to get used to it, because every other program I use does it a different way.

The search/replace function in Notepad++ is very good. It even keeps your previous search/replace words in a drop down so you can use them again in the session. I haven't yet figured out how to search for text and replace it with a carriage return/linefeed, but if I figure that one out, Notepad++ will become a must-have editor on my Windows box.

Notepad++ seems to remember the last directory I saved to, and all newly created files default to that directory. But I don't think it remembers the directory from the last time the program ran. EditPad Lite does remember, and it's a great help. I wouldn't be opposed to setting my "home" directory manually, but I'm not sure this can be done. If using the Notepad++ directory for files causes it to open to the same directory every time, that's a small sacrifice for me to make; I generally store all of my text files in one place, and it doesn't matter where that place is (though it's nice to be able to choose it in advance, though navigating to my text-file directory once per day isn't an insurmountable hardship).

Notepad++ remembers the last eight files I've opened, and they're available for reopening in the File menu. I think I can set it to remember more. For me, the more the better.

Why a text editor? I remember Jerry Pournelle, prolific science-fiction writer and long-winded columnist for Byte magazine way, way back in the day talking about the pre-IBM-PC machines he had set up for word processing in what he called (and still calls) Chaos Manor, and all the technical specs, trials and tribulations he went through. He's definitely an inspiration for this blog and its style, although I've never quite thought of it that way until now. (I used to love Byte back in the '80s.) Pournelle always talked about text editors, and at the time, I had no idea what a "text editor" was. I knew what a word processor was, but it took awhile for the concept of a text editor and what it can do to sink in.

And then came vi. Vi's great when it's the only game in town, as it was on the UC Santa Cruz timeshare Unix box I had an account on in the late '80s. Today I can fake it in vi, but I'm no master.

I still use word processors occasionally -- usually AbiWord, sometimes OpenOffice, occasionally MS Word on the Mac. But more and more -- with all the Web work I do -- text editors are quicker, more flexible, faster -- and most importantly, they give you clean ASCII output that isn't mucked up with extra crap.

End note: I Googled Jerry Pournelle to see if I was spelling his name right. I'm glad to see his Web site, which I'm going to explore at greater length at my earliest opportunity.

I've been changing text editors in Windows like some people change underwear -- clean people that is.

And every time I try a new one, I open a text file and choose the new application. Windows remembers what I chose the last time, and that is presented as the first choice when I open a new text file. I've gone from EdiPad Lite to Geany to Notepad++, and I appreciate Windows remembering the last text editor I've used. I get the same treatment with .doc files, which I sometimes open with OpenOffice but usually go quick-and-dirty with AbiWord.

Anyhow, it's a nice feature in Windows, this remembering the last app I used in a given category. Nice to hear me say something nice about Windows, don't you think?

In search of more Windows text editors, I started here, which led me to PSPad, which I will try next week. There's more info at PSPad's English-language site. I've just learned that PSPad was created by Jan Fiala of the Czech Republic.

While Notepad++ is under the GNU GPL license, I think PSPad is distributed as "freeware," with a request for donations. You don't have to pay, but I don't think you get the source code, either. I can't argue with "free."

Notepad++ is doing pretty well. But I have two problems: First, I don't see a function for renaming files. I prefer not to "save as" sometimes and instead change a file's name. Two, when creating a file, I had a little trouble naming it. I wanted the .txt extension to be added automatically, and for some reason my file had .txt in the name and the extension. The latter could be operator error, the former ... well, I'll have to work on it.

However, lack of a "rename" function is not a deal-breaker.

Since Geany in Windows can't manage to get the spacing between lines right without we selecting the LF mode (as opposed to the CR/LF mode) for every file I open, I decided to look elsewhere for my Windows text editor solution. (Note: this "setting" doesn't seem to make a difference in EditPad Lite -- things come out OK no matter which kind of line endings I choose.)

Next up: Notepad++, which unlike my former favorite EditPad Lite, is under the GNU license, meaning it's free and open-source -- a requirement for my new Windows text editor.

So far, Notepad++ is looking very good. I can open multiple files in tabs, I can wrap lines without the wrapping screwing up the file (the biggest detriment -- to me, specifically -- in Linux/Unix console editors -- is when word-wrapping inserts line-feeds everywhere they wrap; I just want to see the wrap, not have the wrap be permanent -- sorry, vi).

Confession: I opened up GVim for Windows, which I've had installed for a while. There's no way that would ever work. I'm just being realistic.

So I'll see how Notepad++ goes and report back.