NotepadNext: A cross-platform reimplementation of Notepad++

[Dork1234]

I just loaded a 500MB file in NotepadNext. Windows shows Notepad Next using is 1397MB.

Meanwhile if I use Notepad++ and load the same file windows shows it is using 586MB.

Any ideas why such high memory usage if this is a direct port to QT?

[legrande]

Another (esoteric) editor I use for quick and dirty hacks on Windows is Notepad2[0]. It's a bare-bones drop-in replacement for the default notepad.exe on Windows, and has syntax highlighting.

As for Linux, Pluma[1] is great too.

[0] https://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html

[1] https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/pluma

[leeoniya]

Notepad3 is actively maintained and has many improvements, btw.

https://github.com/rizonesoft/Notepad3

[dspillett]

Notepad2 hasn't seen any updates since 2012. Unlikely to be a massive issue for a text editor if it is considered feature complete, though it might at least mean unfixed annoyances creep in and go unfixed with newer OS versions.

[Tijdreiziger]

Your first link is flagged as 'badware risk' by uBlock Origin.

> Title: uBlock filters – Badware risks

> Description: For sites documented to put users at risk of installing adware/crapware etc. The purpose is to at least ensure a user is warned of the risks ahead.

[digisign]

Geany fills this niche, and is close to being feature complete. It could use help and attention as well, it unfortunately doesn't get enough imho. Also on github: https://github.com/geany/geany

[ZoomZoomZoom]

Geany is mature and solid, and I like it a lot, especially on Windows. However, I personally bump into some uncomfortable limitations with it.

The pace of the development, including just reacting to issues or PRs is rather slow.

Basic editing functions are few (just compare the contents of the "Edit" submenu with Notepad++). This is partially mitigated by "Send selection to", but a text editor without a simple line sorting?..

The settings for the "Build" submenu is artificially limited. Why just 3 filetype and 3 shared commands? Why not allow changing the keyboard shortcuts for those right in the same window?

No macro or scripting at all. In my view, such programs benefit a lot from having all their actions available as a list of commands which can be used to construct custom chains and scripts or be used setting the keybindings.

Somehow, not all the lexers from lexilla are available? For example, Nim lexer is more than 3 years old (5, if you count lexer for an earlier version then called Nimrod), but Nim settings for Geany still uses the Python lexer.

[qbasic_forever]

I have a container I setup with XFCE and this awesome Windows 95 theme: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 Geany works perfectly inside it for a little retro dev environment. It looks and feels just like old Visual Studio versions, but I can code any modern thing I want.

[WD-42]

Geany was the first editor I used to write code. It has just the right balance of features to make editing code productive while keeping it simple enough for beginners.

[themodelplumber]

Geany is great. I have 200+ files open in it most of the time and it's been really nice to use all along.

[zozbot234]

These light IDE editors should really be including some support for modern features like LSP, Tree-Sitter parsers and the Debug Adapter Protocol. Modern development flows have come to rely on this stuff.

This also goes for terminal-based editors, BTW. The old RHIDE is in many ways still unsurpassed in the intuitiveness and inherent extensibility of its text-based interface. A modern *nix-based equivalent would find plenty of use for light development work over SSH. (You could even ssh in and develop from an Apple iPad with keyboard addon!)

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Geany drove me insane when I tried it. The horrific font rendering that turned underscores into spaces, the obtuse as hell format for custom syntax highlighting... No thanks man.

[syntaxfree]

Can you define custom syntax highlighting as easily as in notepad++? My use case was that I had one big text file for everything with some ad hoc format.

[sergiotapia]

Wow that takes me back! I learned how to code with Geany!

[account-5]

I've never been able to get on with geany, compared to np++ it comes a very distant second.

[Tempest1981]

> A cross-platform, reimplementation of Notepad++

For Windows, how does this differ from Don Ho's original version? https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

What is the vision/goal of this fork? The README is minimal.

[jeroenhd]

The original Notepad++ source code is written for the Windows API, built for Windows releases only. This project seems to be Qt-based, allowing cross platform development.

It seems like someone thought "building a Notepad++ of my own seems like a nice idea" and went with it long enough for it to become quite a competent editor.

[riedel]

well, that is cross platform I guess?

[988747]

It's been a hell of a paradox for me after switching from Windows to Linux that the two types of applications that I missed the most were good text editor (Notepad++) and good ssh connection manager (Moba Xterm).

[frenchie4111]

Looks like a cool project, not throwing shade, but these two lines in this order made me giggle:

    Though the application overall is stable and usable, it should not be considered safe for critically important work.
    
    There are numerous bugs and half working implementations. Pull requests are greatly appreciated.

[Havoc]

To be fair that level of self-awareness is usually a good sign

[ZoomZoomZoom]

Another one directly inspired by N++ is NotepadQQ. Tried it briefly and passed - mostly the functionality was lacking. Not sure if it's Scintilla based, as the original, Geany or TextMate.

https://github.com/notepadqq/notepadqq

[alexvoda]

NotepadQQ uses Scintilla just like Notepad++.

I am curious how this new editor compares to NQQ since both are Qt based spiritual derivatives of N++.

[ZoomZoomZoom]

s/TextMate/Textadept

[pers0n]

If you want this to take off, please provide compiled binaries for MacOS and Linux

[ffhhj]

Nice to see this project, will try it out. When I moved from Windows 11 to Ubuntu I was really happy to find most of my daily use utilities in Linux or equivalents, but I was shocked there isn't a native version of Notepad++, its the kind of app you would expected to have multiple ports in several OSes. The version from Snap doesn't integrate well with Linux.

The record and play macro feature is probably the most useful tool, I keep grabbing code from VStudio/JetBrains-based editors to refactor/format it in NP++. For me the future of text editors should go in the automated direction: "see these identifiers and strings, tabulate them in columns to make my code more readable, now convert this column of strings into identifiers with given prefix and camel case, and define them in that module."

[themodelplumber]

I remember thinking this exact thing back in 2007! Shortly before discovering Kate and fish://. At the time I think I used regex and scripting instead of macros though.

[tfigment]

Notepad++ is a wrapper around scite using native windows apis or at least was years ago. Find a native editor using that library in same way such as SciTE itself.

[simonklitj]

Honest question: as a Vim user, what are the benefits/strong suits of Notepad++ (and NotepadNext)?

[yumraj]

Qs: what's a good simple general purpose text editor for Mac, similar to Notepad++

I've been using VSCode for this, especially since it saves buffers without me having to save to a file and would love one with this feature.

[nacs]

Sublime Text is really good.

I use VS Code for development but Sublime handles large files much better (large JSONs, log files, etc) and loads much faster than VSC does.

[MBCook]

Look at BBEdit. It’s been a standard on Mac for over 20 years.

It’s free by default with lots of great extra features that can be unlocked with a purchase.

[fisher_S]

I used Notepad++ on Windows; now on MacOS I use TextMate. It's as simple and lightweight as Notepad++, and if I understand correctly, it has the save feature you're looking for. If you Command+Q without saving to a file, the contents will still be there the next time you start it.

[afarviral]

gVim (only on windows/linux) with a minimal config is my preferred. Fast but a few powerful built-in vim features like search, replace, syntax highlighting, spellchecking, auto-indent etc. It loads in about 1.5s on my machine and renders the text nicely.

Maybe take a look at https://github.com/macvim-dev/macvim on mac, perhaps someone can comment about the state of macvim?

[wildrhythms]

TextMate is my go-to for being free and open-source with lots of great features while still being super fast and lightweight

https://macromates.com/

[sigzero]

Just a few:

  - Kate
  - CudaText
  - Sublime Text
  - BBEdit

[nicoco]

Kate?

[progre]

Love Notepad++ and I sometimes miss it on Linux. Are plugins from Notepad++ compatible with this?

[ww520]

I’ve used Notepad++ with Wine on Linux. It works fine. The only problem is it doesn’t handle high DPI monitor very well so the UI font is really small. It might be a problem with Wine.

Also the directory navigation in the file dialog is clunky. The directory places are windows based rather than Linux based.

[jeroenhd]

I haven't tried myself, but is there any reason why Notepad++ wouldn't run on Wine? I don't think it accesses APIs obscure enough to run into usability bugs, does it?

[n1vz3r]

Is this project still based on Scintilla? (which is also cross-platform)

[nittanymount]

seems it is

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

As someone who relies on Notepad++ daily, to the point of being seriously worried about finding a replacement when I am inevitably forced to switch to Linux[0], I am encouraged by my short time playing around with NotepadNext. It looks right, it feels mostly right, and the AppImage started quickly. Unfortunately it is still missing most of the features I actually use in Npp, but it is a promising start!

[0] Being real: I'll probably just run Npp in WINE

[pdenton]

Related project: https://github.com/notepadqq/notepadqq

[DeathArrow]

I wonder what needs this reimplementation fulfills. I am quite happy with Notepad++ and I think that for other operating systems there are already a few competent text editors.

But if we think about IDEs, things aren't quite as rosy and I would love to see something as good as Visual Studio running on MacOS (the existing version is just a renamed Mono Develop).

[hdjjhhvvhga]

My first thought was, "Finally I can use something like N++ on my mac". Then I checked the project page and realized at this point cross-platform means "we ported it to Linux". Which is great (although frankly Linux users are spoiled for choice wrt editors), it's just the headline that is misleading (yet).

[account-5]

I've been looking for a Linux version of Notepad++ for what feels like years.

I started learning vim but can't use it at work as I'm stuck on windows (which vim is rubbish on), and the way they (IT dept) installed it basically made it worse, so I never used it enough for it to be my go-to.

[teleforce]

Anyone knows whether NotepadNext uses RRB-Tree or any usable text editor that's already using it? [1]

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20604981

[IChooseY0u]

This is very nice. Looks like you have a lot of experience with Qt.