Script To Fix ASCII->Hex Byte Limit

LanceMarchetti

Hi All, I was always battling to convert more than 100KB with the ASCII to HEX Converter plugin, due to a memory restriction issue, “Bad Allocation”. So here’s a helpful Python script I asked AI to assist me with.

1.) Highlight all the bytes you want converted
2.) Execute the script.
3.) It will first check that Encoding is set to Windows-1252
4.) Then proceeds to convert every 100KB in chunks to completion.

from Npp import notepad, editor, console
import time

WIN1252_ID = 45022
ASCII_TO_HEX_ID = 22070

MAX_CHUNK_SIZE = 100228  # max bytes per chunk allowed by plugin

def switch_encoding():
    notepad.menuCommand(WIN1252_ID)
    console.write("Switched encoding to Windows-1252\n")
    time.sleep(0.5)  # wait for encoding switch

def convert_chunk(start_pos, length):
    end_pos = start_pos + length
    editor.setSelection(start_pos, end_pos)
    console.write("Selected chunk from {} to {} (length {})\n".format(start_pos, end_pos, length))
    notepad.menuCommand(ASCII_TO_HEX_ID)
    console.write("Converted chunk ASCII -> HEX\n")
    time.sleep(0.7)  # wait for conversion to complete

def main():
    switch_encoding()

    total_length = editor.getLength()
    console.write("Total document length: {}\n".format(total_length))

    current_pos = 0
    while current_pos < total_length:
        # Calculate chunk size (do not exceed MAX_CHUNK_SIZE or remaining length)
        chunk_size = min(MAX_CHUNK_SIZE, total_length - current_pos)

        # Convert chunk
        convert_chunk(current_pos, chunk_size)

        # After conversion, the selected chunk is replaced by hex text,
        # which is roughly 3x the original length (2 hex chars + space per byte),
        # so the document length increases.
        # To find new current_pos, we get selection end after conversion.
        sel_start = editor.getSelectionStart()
        sel_end = editor.getSelectionEnd()
        converted_length = sel_end - sel_start

        # Move current_pos forward by the length of converted hex text
        current_pos = sel_end

        # Update total_length for next iteration
        total_length = editor.getLength()

        console.write("Updated current_pos: {}, total_length: {}\n".format(current_pos, total_length))

    console.write("Completed chunked ASCII to HEX conversion.\n")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Save as ascii2hex.py in: \plugins\PythonScript\scripts\Samples

Alan Kilborn

@LanceMarchetti said:

here’s a helpful Python script I asked AI to assist me with.

Posting AI generated code is a violation of forum policy, FYI.

@LanceMarchetti said:

Save as ascii2hex.py in: \plugins\PythonScript\scripts\Samples

This is not the best advice; it’s not a “sample”.
Just save it in the normal location for scripts, i.e., ...\plugins\Config\PythonScript\scripts

Ekopalypse

@LanceMarchetti said in Script To Fix ASCII->Hex Byte Limit:

So here’s a helpful Python script I asked AI to assist me with

If the prompt was similar to your explanation of what the script does, then once again the AI has done a poor job.
Firstly, it acts on the whole file, not just the selected part and secondly and far more critically, your ASCII_TO_HEX_ID definition is incorrect and Npp will therefore execute an arbitrary command.

LanceMarchetti

@Alan-Kilborn My apologies, I forgot that AI code should not be posted. Thanks

Mark Olson

It occurs to me that I could implement a feature in HugeFiles that would load a chunk of a file, run a plugin command on that chunk, append it to a new file, and repeat for each chunk.

Such a feature would AFAICT eliminate the need for scripts like the one posted above.

If this post gets at least 4 upvotes, I will consider implementing this feature. I expect it would be a lot of work but potentially useful.