Need a targeted open mode for np++

Mark Swanson

Over the last few months np++ has become unusable for my major use case. I am spending a lot of time looking at large json logs (one json record per line) on remote systems. It used to be that I could open one inside WinSCP, quickly locate the lines of interest, use the JSON viewer to expand and then go on. Fundamentally, the log files in question will never be looked at again once the question I was looking into is resolved.

But since some time in Nov or Dec 2015 np++ usually does not open for this case. Just hangs or slowly processes old, frequently unavailable log files, possibly with an invisible popup or stuck in a loop. I cannot tell what is wrong and np++ just has the little collapsed status icon with the embedded open icon greyed out. I think it is just having trouble checking and trying to update all the irrelevant and unavailable log files. (I am running Windows 7 with the most recent np++.)

What I think I need is some set of the following. (If they already exist let me know because I have not been able to find them.)

Give me a targeted open mode. If I say open a file, then open it and ignore all the other files you have loaded till I try to open them.
Let me put a maximum limit on how many file tabs np++ keeps around. Generally, if it’s not in my last 6 I don’t care and I would like you to quietly forget about it if I didn’t edit it. Or if it isn’t available any more.
Speed up handling existing files and/or do some timeouts when you open them.
NP++ has gotten much slower over the last few months for my use cases. Maybe its just the above but your update notes have listed an awful lot of esoteric features that I don’t care about. If they are slowing you down, please let me turn them off.

Mark Swanson

As an example: just before posting the above I tried to open a log file in WinSCP/np++. It has 80 lines and 232k characters. It took half an hour to open, including the 3 or 4 popups when I told np++ to forget about the missing files whose temporary directories had also vanished. Every time I try to scroll down to look at the last few lines np++ grays out the screen and/or the blasted rolling wait icon comes up. It looks like np++ is trying to do too much!

Claudia Frank

Hello Mark-Swanson,

do I understand it correctly by saying you only need to have the one file open which you are
selected by WinSCP? If so, I assume it can be accelerated by disabling the session backup
functionality. To do so goto

Settings->Preferences->Backup and
uncheck Remember current session for next launch

Cheers
Claudia

Mark Swanson

Thanks, that worked. A bit more absolute than I would prefer but the tool is now usable again.