Notepad++
Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several programming languages and natural languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL Licence.
Why another source editor?
" The company where I worked used JEXT (another open source code editor in Java) as the production tool. Due to its poor performance, I began an investigation to find another solution (in C++ instead of in Java) in September 2003. I found Scintilla and built a prototype. Unfortunately this solution was not accepted. I removed the specific part and continued to develop it in my leisure time. On the 25th November 2003 it was made available on Sourceforge, and that was the birth of Notepad++. "
How to install
- From the installer :
- Just follow the install wizard.
- From the zip :
- just unzip all the files into a directory you want then launch it.
You may like for Notepad++ to AutoComplete your functions... here is how to set that up.
To get the User Defined Business Rules! language contact John Bowman, he'll send you his latest copy and you can modify it to your heart's desire.
To implement the BR Wiki as context sensitive help, see the Lookup project.
Run Commands
N++ allows you to run[1] third party utilities, like Lexi (See Lexi#Notepad++ or BR Wiki. Here are a few commands that can help you get started.
- BR Wiki - Term Search
- "http://brwiki.ads.net/index.php?title=Special:Search&search=$(CURRENT_WORD)"
- This command will launch a search of the BR Wiki in your default browser for the current word (the word nearest the cursor). This is a nice way to get quick help.
- see also Lookup project
Project web sites
- Here you can find all the informations about Notepad++, such as FAQ/tutorial, plugins/extension download, news, shops, etc...
- It is Notepad++ project site. The source codes and binaries are distributed here. You can do your feature requests or bug reports by using the trackers, you can ask your question regarding Notepad++ in the divers forums as well.
Programming languages supported
Notepad++ supports syntax highlighting for
- Active Server Pages (ASP)
- Ada
- ASCII art
- Assembler
- AutoIt (Limited support for AutoHotKey)
- BAT
- C
- C#
- C++
- Caml
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
- doxygen
- Fortran
- INNO Setup Scripts
- HTML
- Haskell
- Java
- JavaScript
- KiXtart
- Lisp
- Lua
- MakeFile
- Matlab
- Objective-C
- Pascal
- Perl
- PHP
- PostScript
- Python
- Ruby
- Scheme
- Unix Shell Script
- Smalltalk
- SQL
- Tcl
- TeX
- Verilog
- VHDL
- Visual Basic/VBScript
- XML
Furthermore, users can define their own language by using the built-in User Language Define System, which makes Notepad++ extendable, to have syntax highlighting and syntax folding.
Features
Some of its features include:
- Auto-completion (language and file)
- Bookmarks
- Syntax highlighting (and brace and indent highlighting)
- Regular expression find and replace
- Split screen editing
- Zooming
- Spell checker (built in but requires Aspell)
- Hex editor (plug-in included in standard installation)(Currently not compatible with NP++ v.4.8.2)
- Tabbed document interface
- FTP Browser (plug-in included in standard installation)
- Support for various file formats including unicode.
It has support for macros and plugins. A user-written plug-in called TextFX, which provides many text transformation options, is included by default.
Although Scintilla does not support multiline regular expression search and replace, Notepad++ does contain support for plug-ins which help mitigate this fact.
Feature Discussion
Pros
It supports:
- code folding
- BR Wiki Term search capable
- column editor
- internal and user designed function Auto Completion
- from a file and/or from dynamically every word in the current document.
- Proportional Fonts
- syntax highlighting
- quote, parenthesis, etc matching
- and other than that it's pretty piddly stuff.
- spell check
- automated backup system
- multi-document tabbed interface and multi-session
- drag and drop between sessions
Cons
- No BR! specific Hints Warning and Errors
- No BR! specific advanced debugging features
Links
Official
- Documentation
- Home
- Get More Plugins
- New N++ Wiki (requires SourceForge user name and password (registration))
- Old N++ wiki