Hi, @peterjones and All,
Peter, actually, we were not talking about the same thing !
On GitHub, under the tree structure notepad-plus-plus/PowerEditor/Test/FunctionList/perl, there are two files :
unitTest ( named unitTest.txt )
unitTest.expected.result ( named unitTest.expected.result )
And indeed, after downloading the unitTest.txt file and opening it within N++, it did automatically recognized this .txt file as a Perl file, due to the first line #!/usr/bin/env perl
Now, in the functionList sub-folder of my portable 887_x64 installation, I copied three files :
perl.xml of N++ v8.8.6, that I renamed perl_886.xml
perl.xml of N++ v8.8.7, that I just re-copied as perl_887.xml
perl.xml, from your last link ( https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/blob/3d829d9a311fa05f77479b79b5b340e05986a52e/PowerEditor/installer/functionList/perl.xml ), that I renamed Perl_NEW.xml
Then, after closing N++, from a CMD prompt, I ran, successively, the three commands :
• D:\887_x64\functionList>copy perl_886.xml perl.xml
• D:\887_x64\functionList>copy perl_887.xml perl.xml
• D:\887_x64\functionList>copy perl_NEW.xml perl.xml
I re-started N++, each time, with current tab = unitTest.txt and opening the View > Function List feature, I did verify that :
The Function List panel with perl_886 was immediate but quite incomplete
The Function List panel with perl_887 was correct but with a slight delay at opening time
The Function List panel with perl_NEW was correct and with no delay at all !
Therefore, I now have the necessary equipment to test the Perl function list regexes and imagine possible new regexes. But just for myself, because I doubt I’ll find anything better than your solution !
Best Regards,
guy038