The 'shortcuts.xml' file is NOT re-created if you delete it, on purpose or by mistake !

guy038

Hi All,

One week ago, I was testing some shortcuts on a new portable version v8.8. Particularly, the Scintilla messages SCI_DELETEBACK and SCI_DELETEBACKNOT LINE !

By default :

The SCI_DELETEBACKNOTLINE message has NO defined shortcut
The SCI_DELETEBACK message has two defined shortcuts : Backspace and Shift + Backspace

So, I wanted to change this behavior and tried to get this configuration :

Define the Backspace shortcut for the SCI_DELETEBACKNOTLINE message
Define the Shift + Basckspace shortcut for the SCI_DELETEBACK message

These changes implies this new behavior :

The hit of the Backspace key always stops at the very beginning of each line
The hit of the Shift + Backspace shortcut allow to go on upwards, deleting characters on the previous line(s)

I did get this expected configuration. Then, I decided to get the default behavior again :

I was able to suppress the Backspace shortcut for the SCI_DELETEBACKNOTLINE message
However, I got things a bit mixed up and it was impossible to, both, reallocate the shortcuts, Backspace and Shift + Backspace, simultaneously, to the SCI_DELETEBACK message

I said to myself : no problem. Let’s delete the shortcut.xml file, close N++ and a new clean shortcuts.xml file will be created !

I was really surprised to discover that NO new shortcuts.xml file has been created !

Then, I restarted N++ and decided to create a first shortcut, related to the View > Summary... command

After closing N++ and viewing the shortcuts.xml file, it contained this only shortcut :

<NotepadPlus>
    <InternalCommands>
        <Shortcut id="44049" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="186" />
    </InternalCommands>
    <Macros />
    <UserDefinedCommands />
    <PluginCommands />
    <ScintillaKeys />
</NotepadPlus>

After reflexion, I thought that I should NOT have deleted the shortcuts.xml file but simply deleted this line :

        <ScintKey ScintID="2326" menuCmdID="0" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="8" />

And relaunched N++. This automatically would reallocate the two shortcuts, Backspace and Shift + Backspace, to the SCI_DELETEBACK message !

So, just one question :

Is is normal that a default shortcuts.xml file is NOT created if absent in current folder ( for a portable version ) ?

Of course, I knows that :

The Stylers.xml file is created from the Stylers.model.xml file, if absent when starting N++
The langs.xml file is created from the langs.model.xml file, if absent when starting N++
The Session.xml file is simply created from scratch, if absent when starting N++

Best Regards,

guy038

PeterJones

@guy038 said in The 'shortcuts.xml' file is NOT re-created if you delete it, on purpose or by mistake !:

Is is normal that a default shortcuts.xml file is NOT created if absent in current folder ( for a portable version )

I can confirm the behavior. I tried with v8.8.1, then back to v8.0, so I think this is expected/designed behavior (I didn’t try farther back than that).

The “installed” or “cloud” behavior will be different:

If you run N++ when the settings directory (AppData or cloud-folder) has no shortcuts.xml, but there is a shortcuts.xml next to notepad++.exe, then it will copy the installation’s version to the settings directory
If you run N++ when neither the settings directory nor the exe directory have shortcuts.xml, it has nothing to copy

So N++ is treating the copy of shortcuts.xml in the exe directory similarly to the “*.model.xml” files in the exe directory. Since the portable doesn’t have a shortcuts.xml in the “exe” directory, it has nothing to copy from, so does not create an empty one. (Similar will happen if a portable or cloud or installed doesn’t have langs.model.xml – if you delete the settings-dir copy of langs.xml, it has no .model. to copy from, and complains at you [but then runs, just with no keyword lists or file extensions defined])

Alan Kilborn

It sort of makes sense… shortcuts.xml is really just a bunch of overrides… so it isn’t really necessary to be there.

For keycombos, all of the defaults are still there, even without a shortcuts.xml file.

so I think this is expected/designed behavior

Or probably, “just never considered” behavior. :-)