Extrem long loading time of big text-files?

[Peter1964]

Hi all,

since some month the new Notepad+±versions need an extrem long time to load a big text-file?

Actually I use version 7.5.1 and a XML-file with size of 100 MByte needs several minutes to load. Windows-Notepad needs 10 seconds :o)

What is the problem here?

Regards
Peter

[dail]

A couple things I’d suggest trying:

• Disable plugins. One of these could be causing issues.
• Change the extension to something like txt to see if the XML highlighting is the problem.
• Make sure the file isn’t on a network drive incase that is causing problems.
• If all else fails, downgrade Notepad++ to see if something changed in a newer version.

[Peter1964]

Hi dail,

thank you for your reply, but all your suggestions are already testet:

• all plugins disabled
• file-extension is “isr” instead of “xml”
• drive is local harddisk (SSD)

Notepad++, v5.9.5 needs 5 seconds (similar to Windows notepad) to load an 80 MB-file and Notepad++ V7.5.1 needs for the same file over 2 minutes!!! Horror!

Unfortunately I can not attach files here? Else I would make the file available for you!

Regards
Peter

[John McCarthy]

From what I can see, N++ does not have large file support:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_text_editors#Extra_features

a quote:

In general, most text editors do not support large text files. Some restrict themselves
to available in-core RAM while others use sophisticated virtual memory management
techniques and paging algorithms

[Claudia Frank]

@Peter1964

I created a ~100MB xml and it opened within 5 seconds on an old dualcore.

Cheers
Claudia

[Peter1964]

Thank you for all your replies. I decided to use NP V5.9.5 for my further live ;-)

For what I need V7.5?

The same 100MB-textfile is loaded in 5 seconds now. V7.5 needs >200 seconds.

Thread can be closed!

[chcg]

I’m also not facing your issue with N++ 7.5.1 on Win10 and a notebook HDD, loading 100MB+ binary files. Loading time with already open N++ < 3 seconds. Is N++ already open on loading or are you also starting up n++ on loading the xml file? I had a once issue where it last ~ 20 seconds to load a file, but on the next try it was ok again.

[guy038]

Hello, @Peter1964,

As for me, with my old XP laptop, with only 1 Gb of RAM ( don’t laugh at me :-)) OK, I’ll tell you when I cross the 21th century ! ) I’ve just tested opening, several times, a video clip ( Test.mpg ) of 105,550,448 bytes and 860,000 lines => I got an average of 5s ( between 2s and 10s ) So, I don’t understand why you get such important opening times, with the last N++ version !

I simply noticed that it’s better to unset the Word wrap feature ( Menu View > Word wrap ) when dealing with huge files. Just test, going to the end of a big size file, with the Ctrl + End shortcut. With the Word wrap option OFF, you reach the end, immediately ! But, when the Word wrap option is ON, you must wait some time and, for instance, with the file described above, and my weak configuration, I had to force N++ to stop !

---

BTW, Peter, you said :

For what I need V7.5?

Just for ALL these new features and enhancements, below !

IMPORTANT WARNING :

I built this list from the different change.log files of each N++ version. I truncated lot of text, whose the plugins list and the bug-fixes. So this list is NOT exhaustive and simply show, to Peter1964, how many features and enhancements he misses, by keeping its v5.9.5 version :-))

 v5.9.6

- Add a new feature "Adding files recursively from a folder" in Project Manager.

 v5.9.6.1

- Enhance "Add files from Directory" command in Project Manager - Sorted result: First all folders, then all files, both of them alphabetically.

 v5.9.8

- Add drag and drop capacity in Project Manager (only inside of Project Manager).
- Add "Move Up" (CTRL+Up) and "Move Down" (CTRL+Down) commands in Project Panel.
- Edit Zone border can be customizable via "Editing" tab of Preferences dialog.

 v6.0

- PCRE (PERL Compatible Regular Expressions) is supported.
- Add Document Map feature (via Menu "View->Document Map").
- Enhance the loading performance for the large file.

 v6.1.3

- Enhance the performance issue for XML matching tags highlighting and for displaying clickable links.

 v6.1.4

- Add "reload from disk" command entry in tab context menu.

 v6.1.6

- Enhance folding performance on large documents.
- Add update auto-detection for the environment vista/windows 7/Windows 8.
- Make Document map togglable via menu.
- Enhance Find/Replace dialog result messages.
- Add font size 5, 6 and 7 in Style Configurator.

 v6.1.7

- Add case sensitive option for smart highlighting feature.
- Enhance the localization system.
- Enhance comment operations: Add stream Uncomment command and cross-calling of block feature.
- Enhance TAB to space and space to TAB commands.

 v6.2

- New User Defined Language (UDL2) system. The key features of UDL2 are:

 v6.2.2

- Add selected line count display on the status bar.
- Add the capacity to treat path like "\test\test.txt".

 v6.2.3

- Add Remove empty lines feature.
- Enable Word-completion under CJK environment for Unicode document.

 v6.3

- Add new options for UDL number definition.

 v6.3.1

- Remember folding states for each file in session.
- Add "Set Updater proxy..." command for setting the proxy of updater.

 v6.3.2

- Recognize wscript and Makefile respectively as python and ruby file.

 v6.3.3

- Add remembering folding between sessions feature.
- Optimize start-up (loading last session) performance.
- Add multi-select feature in Document List Panel and Close/Keep the selected files commands (right click).

 v6.4

- Add Function List Panel (customizable, support C++ and JAVASCRIPT for the moment).
- Add delimiter select by CTRL+Double click feature.
- Add set begin position feature for selection.
- Enhance Block comment: Remove 1024 bytes limit.
- Enhance TAB/Space conversion: UTF8 support and preserving the current state.

 v6.4.2

- Make "Begin/End Select" Command recordable in macro.
- Enhance the delimiter selection (CTRL + double click) feature.

 v6.4.3

- Enhance delimiter selection (CTRL + Mouse Double Click) - Add GUI settings in Preferences dialog.
- Add open session in the new instance capacity.
- Add new command line argument "-openSession" for opening a session file.
- Add multi-instance option.
- Add localization command line option -LlangCode where langCode is browser language code.

 v6.4.4

- Add "Close All to the Left" and "Close All to the Right" features.
- Add direct access to the tab feature (CTRL + NumPad).
- Add insert blank line above/below the current line feature (CTRL+ALT+Enter / CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+Enter respectively).
- Add selection between matching braces feature.
- Enhance function list's C/C++ parser.

 v6.5

- Update Scintilla to version 3.3.4.
- Add language CoffeeScript support.
- Add multi-paste support for multi-selection/column mode.
- Add new feature: Auto-close parentheses, quotes, bracket and matched XML/HTML tag.
- Add PHP, PERL, XML, BATCH, INI and NSIS for the build-in function list.
- Add User Defined Languages support for the build-in function list.
- Add reload feature for the build-in function list.
- Enhance "Begin/End select" feature: Check "Begin/End select" menu item when active.
- Enhance Mark all feature: 2 options "Match case" and "Match whole word only" in Find/Replace dialog .
- Add new feature: If Notepad++ is running as administrator, display this info on the title bar.

 v6.5.1

- Add search and sort abilities into function list.
- Add Java parser into function list.
- Add auto-completion for absolute path feature.

 v6.5.2

- Add sort lines feature.
- Make 2 external commands as build-in commands: Open containing folder in Explorer/CMD.
- URL hovered highlighting can be customized.
- Improve PHP and JS parsers in functionList.
- Add panel icons for 6 panels: ASCII insertion, clipboard history, doc map, doc switcher, function list and project.
- Update html auto-completion file.

 v6.5.3

- Make advanced scrolling optional so it can be disabled in case of TouchPad scrolling problem.
- Enhance sort lines feature: If several lines are selected, only the selected lines are sorted.
- Add hex value column in ASCII Insert Panel.
- Enhance performance: Prevent switched-in document from being parsed by function list and by document map while these 2 panels are hidden.

 v6.5.4

- Enhance Notepad++ to conform with DPI-aware application.
- Make extension column optional in vertical file switcher.
- Add 3rd option "function + word completion" in auto-completion feature.

 v6.5.5

- Add character encoding auto-detection feature.
- Enable word-completion in ANSI document under CJK environment.
- Add wildcard capacity for file name argument in command line.
- Add new command line argument "-r" for opening files recursively (with wildcard characters).
- Enhance Function list feature: Reload on saving.
- Enhance Function list feature: Better recognition of PERL function.
- Add "Command line arguments help" menu item command.

 v6.6

- Add session snapshot and periodic backup feature.
- Make auto-detect character encoding optional.
- Apply DPI-aware on find & replace dialog tab and User define language dialog tab.
- Add shell script parser for the function list.
- Make backslash as an escape character optional in SQL.

 v6.6.4

- New feature: Settings on cloud - Dropbox.
- Add backup path info for session snapshot & periodic backup feature.

 v6.6.7

- Settings on cloud - OneDrive.

 v6.6.8

- Settings on cloud - Google Drive.

 v6.6.9

- Add python parson for function List.
- New feature: Apply new file default settings on created new file (opened via command line).

 v6.7

- Add Smart Indent feature for PHP/JAVASCRIPT/C/C++/JAVA/C#/OBJECTIVE-C.
- Enhance Auto-insert feature for {} [] (): Typing and skipping }, ] and ).
- Add new feature of MRU: While current file is closed the previous activated file will be activated.
- Enhancement: Resize column Name filed correctly while hiding column Ext.
- Add C# and enhance PHP parser in Function List.
- Make "Text Direction RTL" command and "Text Direction LTR" command work without reloading file.
- Make document map matches the current text direction (RTL/LTR).

 v6.7.1

- Add new feature: Auto-insert skipping character feature works for "" and '' now.
- Add "Mark..." menu command.

 v6.7.2

- Prevent auto-insert of {} [] () "" and '' from inserting in column mode.
- Improve the usability of User Defined Language dialog: Reduce dialog's height.

 v6.7.5

- Show progress window instead of a static window during FindInFiles and ReplaceInFiles.
- Filename rendered incorrectly on tab-bar, while it contains '&' character.
- Make highlighting (if enabled) follow typing for Incremental search, and add several Incremental search enhancements.
- Make keystroke ENTER trigger the shortcut editor dialog, in Shortcut Mapper.
- Allow drop files onto doc switcher and other side panels.
- Installer remembers user's choices of last installation.
- Restore focus to editor when a panel is closed.

 v6.7.6

- Add "Restore last closed file" (CTRL+SHIFT+T) feature.

 v6.7.8

- Update WinGup to version 3.0 which has SSL support and customizable User-Agent.
- Improve sort lines performance greatly.

 v6.7.9

- Upgrade Scintilla to v3.56.
- Add Language and EOL conversion context menu on status bar.
- Enhance sort lines feature: Add lexicographic and numeric (integer and real) sorting with ascending and descending order.
- Add new feature which launches a new instance with administrator privilege to save the protected file.
- Improve copy (to clipboard) in found results panel.
- Improve find in files modal dialog.

 v6.7.9.1

- Add "Google Search" command in the context menu.

 v6.8

- Settings on cloud feature allows users to write their settings on whichever cloud.
- Make smooth font optional.

 v6.8.4

- Improve document switching performance while folding restoring.
- Enhance Javascript syntax highlighting: 2 groups of keywords more for syntax highlighting customization.
- Improve auto-insert usability: the open symbols (", ', (, [ and { ) triggers the close symbols according to the context.
- Apply new added language auto-detection (for php, xml, html and bash) in the case of unknown file extension.
- Add JSON language support.
- Enlarge tabbar height.

 v6.8.6

- Improve the language detection at the beginning of file content.
- Enhance the detection of EOL: if a document has no EOL for detecting, use EOL of new document settings.

 v6.8.7

- Restore file extension feature in save dialog.
- Enhance language detection on "Save as".
- Add back-quoted string support for javascript.
- Move position to center when using "-n" option in command line.

 v6.8.8

- Add Debug Info helper feature.
- Make editor border edge display optional.

 v6.8.9

- HTML auto-close tag enhancement: Prevent <br>, <hr>, <img>, <link> and <meta> from being closed automatically.
- Project enhancement: Allows user defined extension to associate workspace file.
- Make behavior of SHIFT+END and SHIFT+HOME more consistent when word wrapping is enabled.
- Add file extensions for FreePascal/Lazarus pascal, lex (as C).
- Update keywords for C, C++, JavaScript, Python and YAML.

 v6.9

- Add "Folder as Workspace" feature.
- HTML auto-close tag enhancement: Prevent <br>, <hr>, <img>, <link> and <meta> from being closed automatically.
- Project enhancement: Allows user defined extension to associate workspace file.
- Make behavior of SHIFT+END and SHIFT+HOME more consistent when word wrapping is enabled.
- Add new API NPPM_SAVEFILE (for plugins) to save any file, not only the focused one.
- Add file extensions for FreePascal/Lazarus pascal, lex (as C).
- Update keywords for C, C++, JavaScript, Python and YAML.

 v6.9.1

- Enhancement: Add "Find in files" command in "Folder as Workspace"
- Enhancement: Add "Open Folder as Workspace" command in File menu.
- Improvements for JSON highlighting.
- Add Ctrl+Shift+Z shortcut for Redo.
- FORTRAN 77 is supported.

 v6.9.2

- Add most wanted feature: Log Monitoring (tail -f).
- Add new feature: Find in Finder.
 v7.0

- x64 build available.
- Auto-updater improvement: periodical check can be disable via auto-update prompt dialog.
- Installer enhancement: Check if Notepad++ is running and ask the user to close it before continue.
- Enhancement: add conflict detection to Shortcut Mapper
- Add a -quitOnEmpty command line flag: Close the last document will quit Notepad++.
- Add more Change Case variants (Title Case, Sentence case, iVERT cASE, rANdOm caSe).
- Add Open file & open containing folder commands on selected file/folder name in text content.
- Add Search on Internet command on selected word(s) in text content.
- Add Scroll Tab Bar with mouse wheel capacity.
- Add commands for moving the current file tab Forward/Backward.
- Ruby is supported by Function List.
- Added new option: Enable scrolling beyond last line.

 v7.1

- Enhance Smart Highlighting feature: 1. match case 2. whole word only 3. use find dialog settings for both.
- Re-show CallTip text on separator character.
- Skip Auto-Complete self-closing HTML tags (<br>, <base>, <track>... etc).
- Add option to skip word completion on numbers (default: ON).
- Sort plugin menu by plugin name.
- Installer: Add 64-bit/32-bit old install detection, and old installation removal ability.
- Installer: Ask user for keeping user data during uninstallation.

 v7.2

- Add option for smart highlighting extension to another view.

 v7.2.1

- Make installer Unicode again.

 v7.3

- Add MD5 functionalities.
- Get back Find dialog while you lost it (in a multi-screen + laptop configuration).

 v7.3.1

- Enhancement : make "Word characters list" customizable.

 v7.3.2

- Enhance "Open file" command - open a file from editor zone without selecting its full path.
- BaanC Language is supported.
- Add error notification on run dialog.
- Add check mark in Language menu.

 v7.4

- Add document peek feature (while mouse hovering on tab).
- Add peek on document map feature.
- Enhance folding feature (multi-line quotes) for python.
- Improve certificate verifying method.
- Enhance the UI of "Windows" dialog (Menu "Window->Windows...") for sorting.
- Apply the new file custom encoding (Unicode or not) while opening an empty content file.
- Improve whitespace visibility while the visualization of whitespace is activated.
- Support RTL for header and footer printing.
- Add a warning message for launching folder as Workspace while both files and folders are dropped in Notepad++.
- Drag and dropping tabs is possible in multi-line tab mode.
- Add new moving tabs with mouse wheel feature (SHIFT + Mouse Wheel)
- Enhance saving workspace file by adding workspace file extension (if set).

 v7.4.1

- Improve Document Peeker performance issue for large files.

 v7.4.2

- Add SWIFT language support.
- Enhance Find Replace dialog (resizable & remove search direction radio buttons).

 v7.5

- Add new languages support: ASN.1, AviSynth, Blitz Basic, Csound, Erlang, escript, Forth, FreeBASIC, LaTeX, MMIX, Nimrod, nnCron, OScript, PureBasic, Rebol, registry, Rust, SPICE, txt2tags
- Add "Open file in its default viewer" command.
- Add "-quickPrint" command line argument: Launch Notepad++, print document & exit.
- Add /noUpdater argument for installer to not install updater (useful in silent mode).
- Enhancement: empty fields "Replace with" and "Filters" of Find/Replace dialog are remembered in the next session.

 v7.5.1

- Add Visual Prolog language support.
- Add auto-completion support for batch file (*.bat).
- Enhance Shortcut Mapper by adding category column.
- Make double click work for language menu disabling/enabling in preferences dialog.
- Make double click work to improve file extension movement in Preferences dialog.
- Add a spiritual quote.

Best Regards,

guy038

[Harald Napp]

I have the same problem with 7.5.6 but only with huge lines.
After opening a 20 MB file with a single line the UI is responding very slowly. Activating linewrap doesn´t seem to make a difference.
Any chance to improve performance here ?

[Tim Nanos]

Just as Harald-Napp said, I have some troubles opening files with very long strings.
I have a file ~60MB with a single string and it takes several minutes to open it, while Lister or even Windows Notepad just takes several seconds.
It would be really great if you guys manage to improve the performance of opening such files.
Thanks!