Invisible characters unwanted

Nathan Harvey

But Shouldn’t we be able to see all the characters (including Zero-width space) if we use the menu option View↘Show Symbol↘Show All Characters ?

This seems like a menu function that doesn’t work as described (ALL characters should include weird control characters and “noop” characters like zero-width space).

Claudia Frank

@Nathan-Harvey

I’m feeling the same, as long as the underlying font is able to represent it, it should be displayed,
even when not using show all symbols.

Cheers
Claudia

Claudia Frank

and it is shown

What am I missing here?

Cheers
Claudia

PeterJones

@Claudia-Frank ,

I think what you’re missing is that your font doesn’t have a glyph for the character, so shows the ? in a box.

My font, DejaVu Sans Mono, has a glyph for that character, which is a zero-width glyph, so you cannot see it (because it’s there, but zero-width). But I can highlight it (see the little green highlight on the first line, and the “Sel: 1|1” on the status bar.

@Nathan-Harvey , I think Notepad++ and my font are doing the right thing: there is a character (Zero-Width Space), and it is being shown, as zero-width. It’s not a control-character, so it doesn’t have a default CR LF-style box-glyph from show-all-characters.

However, using the PythonScript plugin (that Claudia’s screenshot implied), you can run editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200B', "ZWS") to get it to replace the normal zero-width space with ZWS in a black box (similar to the CR and LF boxes). To clear that alternate representation, editor.clearRepresentation(u'\u200B'). (There is similar notation for the NppExec plugin as well, but I do not know how to represent a unicode string in its syntax.)

By saving that to a script, and using the PythonScript Configuration menu to add that script to the Plugins > PythonScript menu, you can actually then assign a keyboard shortcut using Settings > Shortcut Mapper > Plugin Commands. If you make two scripts

# script = Show ZeroWidth Characters (give them a non-zero-width representation)
editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200B', "ZWS")
editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200C', "ZWNJ")
editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200D', "ZWJ")
editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFEFF', "ZWNBSP")

# script = Default ZeroWidth Characters (return them to their zero-width glyph from the selected font)
editor.clearRepresentation(u'\u200B')
editor.clearRepresentation(u'\u200C')
editor.clearRepresentation(u'\u200D')
editor.clearRepresentation(u'\uFEFF')

you can get all the “zero width” unicode characters that I can find to toggle visibility

Claudia Frank

@PeterJones

Peter, thank you very much for your insight.
You could be and I already start thinking you are right about the glyph and my used font.
I still feel it should be the other way around as I don’t like to have an invisible char in my code
and wondering why it doesn’t do what it is supposed to do but than, on the other side, it doesn’t make sense to have a zero-width char. Hmmm.
I guess I’m good as I can use my font or using setRepresentation function to see any “invisible” chars :-)
Your explanation makes sense - absolutely.

Thank you very much.
Claudia

PeterJones

Also, if you want one command to do the normal Show All Characters plus showing these four Zero Width characters,

    # script = Show All Characters (including ZeroWidth)
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200B', "ZWS")
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200C', "ZWNJ")
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200D', "ZWJ")
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFEFF', "ZWNBSP")
    # if you want to _also_ show all characters with this script,
    #   first pick a different View > Show Symbols option,
    #   then pick this one (each is a toggle, so don't want to accidentally hide all characters if show-all was already selected)
    notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_EOL)
    notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS)

And similarly to un-set Show All Characters as well as clearing the four Zero Width representations:

    # script = Don'tShow All Characters (including ZeroWidth)
    editor.clearRepresentation(u'\u200B')
    editor.clearRepresentation(u'\u200C')
    editor.clearRepresentation(u'\u200D')
    editor.clearRepresentation(u'\uFEFF')
    # if you want to _also_ hide all characters with this script,
    #   first pick a different View > Show Symbols option,
    #   then pick this one twice (each is a toggle, so don't want to accidentally show all characters if show-all was already cleared)
    notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_EOL)
    notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS)
    notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS)

As explained in my comments, I use the VIEW_EOL to change out of VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS, no matter what the state of the VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS toggle is; then I use VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS once to set it or twice to clear it. If, instead, you’d like your DontShowAllCharacters to revert to “Show EOL” or “Show Whitespace and Tab”, then instead of VIEW_EOL/VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS/VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS sequence of three, you could just use VIEW_EOL (a sequence of one to show EOL) or VIEW_TAB_SPACE. (Though, to be safe, you might want a two-sequence of VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS/VIEW_EOL or VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS/VIEW_TAB_SPACE. It would be easier if there were a notepad.getMenuCommandState() or similar command that reads back the current state of a toggled menu command.)

Claudia Frank

@PeterJones

thx,
there are editor.getViewEOL() and editor.getViewWS() functions available
to retrieve current state. But instead of using setView… I would recommend using
notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND…) to be in sync with notepad++ itself.

Cheers
Claudia

Alan Kilborn

@PeterJones

I’ve noticed that after doing an editor.setRepresentation() it shows the new character representation in the currently active tab, but if I switch tabs to one which also has characters that should be shown by this, they aren’t shown. Switching back to the tab I started in, the representation I set has also disappeared.

I think I know why this is (well, kinda, :-) ), but I’m surprised it wasn’t mentioned before in this thread.

Alan Kilborn

@Alan-Kilborn said in Invisible characters unwanted:

I’ve noticed that after doing an editor.setRepresentation() it shows the new character representation in the currently active tab, but if I switch tabs to one which also has characters that should be shown by this, they aren’t shown. Switching back to the tab I started in, the representation I set has also disappeared.

Here’s a little script to avoid that problem, I call it SetRepresentationForSpecialCharacters.py :

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from Npp import editor, notepad, NOTIFICATION

class SRFSC(object):

    def __init__(self):
        notepad.callback(self.callback_npp_BUFFERACTIVATED, [NOTIFICATION.BUFFERACTIVATED])
        self.callback_npp_BUFFERACTIVATED(None)

    def callback_npp_BUFFERACTIVATED(self, args):
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200B', "ZWS")
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200C', "ZWNJ")
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200D', "ZWJ")
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200E', "LTR")  # left-to-right mark
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFEFF', "ZWNBSP")

I run it from my startup.py with this segment of code:

import SetRepresentationForSpecialCharacters
SetRepresentationForSpecialCharacters.SRFSC()

PeterJones

@Alan-Kilborn said in Invisible characters unwanted:

editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200E', "LTR")  # left-to-right mark`

Apparently this LTR issue is really annoying to you. :-)

Looking at http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/block/general_punctuation/images.htm, there are other control characters in that block, so if your data is more varied, I might expand that to:

    # zero width in name
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200B', "ZWS")
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200C', "ZWNJ")
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200D', "ZWJ")
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFEFF', "ZWNBSP")
    # also zero width
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2060', "WJ")       # word joiner (separate from ZWJ, but still claims zero width)
    # directional controls and other toggles
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200E', "LTR")  # left-to-right mark
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200F', "RTL")  # right-to-left mark
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202A', "EMBL")  # left-to-right embedding
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202B', "EMBR")  # right-to-left embedding
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202C', "EMBP")  # pop directional formatting
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202A', "OVRL")  # left-to-right override
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202B', "OVRR")  # right-to-left override
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2066', "ISOL")  # left-to-right isolate
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2067', "ISOR")  # right-to-left isolate
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2068', "ISO1")  # first strong isolate
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2069', "ISOP")  # pop directional isolate
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206A', "SYMI")  # inhibit symmetric swapping
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206B', "SYMA")  # activate symmetric swapping
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206C', "ARAI")  # inhibit arabic form shaping
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206D', "ARAA")  # activate arabic form shaping
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206E', "SHNA")  # national digit shapes
    editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206E', "SHNO")  # nominal digit shapes

But, most important is to include the characters that you, as the user of the script, might run across.

guy038

Hello, @peterjones, @alan-kilborn and All,

From these two links :

https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2000.pdf

https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UFE70.pdf

I just rewrote these 26 special characters :

By increasing Unicode code-point order
With their exact code-points ( some typos corrected )
With their normalized Unicode character representation

So, here is a new version of the @alan-kilborn’s SetRepresentationForSpecialCharacters.py file, with the merged lines from the @peterjones’s script, without using the startup.py file :

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from Npp import editor, notepad, NOTIFICATION

class SRFSC(object):

    def __init__(self):
        notepad.callback(self.callback_npp_BUFFERACTIVATED, [NOTIFICATION.BUFFERACTIVATED])
        self.callback_npp_BUFFERACTIVATED(None)

    def callback_npp_BUFFERACTIVATED(self, args):

        # FORMAT chars

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200B', "ZWSP")    # zero width space

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200C', "ZWNJ")    # zero width non-joiner
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200D', "ZWJ")     # zero width joiner

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200E', "LRM")     # left-to-right mark
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200F', "RLM")     # right-to-left mark

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202A', "LRE")     # left-to-right embedding
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202B', "RLE")     # right-to-left embedding

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202C', "PDF")     # pop directional formatting

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202D', "LRO")     # left-to-right override
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202E', "RLO")     # right-to-left override

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2060', "WJ")      # word joiner ( zero width no-break space )

        # INVISIBLE chars

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2061', "FA")      # function application

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2062', "IT")      # invisible times
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2063', "IS")      # invisible separator
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2064', "IP")      # invisible plus

        # FORMAT chars

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2066', "LRI")     # left-to-right isolate
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2067', "RLI")     # right-to-left isolate

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2068', "FSI")     # first strong isolate
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2069', "PDI")     # pop directional isolate

        # DEPRECATED chars

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206A', "ISS")     # inhibit symmetric swapping
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206B', "ASS")     # activate symmetric swapping

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206C', "IAFS")    # inhibit arabic form shaping
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206D', "AAFS")    # activate arabic form shaping

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206E', "NADS")    # national digit shapes
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206F', "NODS")    # nominal digit shapes

        # SPECIAL char

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFEFF', "BOM")     # byte order mark ( zero width no-break space : deprecated, see U+2060 )

        notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS)
        notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS)

SRFSC()

On the other hand, you may quickly verify if some special characters exist in current file, using the Mark dialog :
- MARK [\x{200B}-\x{200F}\x{202A}-\x{202E}\x{2060}-\x{2064}\x{2066}-\x{206F}\x{FEFF}]

=> You should see some thin red marks and , since the v7.9.2 N++ version, you can copy all these chars in a new tab, for further examination, with the Copy Marked Text button !

A third solution could be to perform a regex S/R ( which can be recorded as a macro) to replace any of these special characters with their Unicode representation :
- SEARCH (\x{200B})|(\x{200C})|(\x{200D})|(\x{200E})|(\x{200F})|(\x{202A})|(\x{202B})|(\x{202C})|(\x{202D})|(\x{202E})|(\x{2060})|(\x{2061})|(\x{2062})|(\x{2063})|(\x{2064})|(\x{2066})|(\x{2067})|(\x{2068})|(\x{2069})|(\x{206A})|(\x{206B})|(\x{206C})|(\x{206D})|(\x{206E})|(\x{206F})|(\x{FEFF})
- REPLACE (?1[ZWSP])(?2[ZWNJ])(?3[ZWJ])(?4[LRM])(?5[RLM])(?6[LRE])(?7[RLE])(?8[PDF])(?9[LRO])(?10[RLO])(?11[WJ])(?12[FA])(?13[IT])(?14[IS])(?15[IP])(?16[LRI])(?17[RLI])(?18[FSI])(?19[PDI])(?20[ISS])(?21[ASS])(?22[IAFS])(?23[AAFS])(?24[NADS])(?25[NODS])(?26[BOM])
- Once the characters have been noted and/or the lines bookmarked, for further analyze, then just undo the replacements with Ctrl + Z

Best Regards,

guy038

Alan Kilborn

@guy038

Is it your intent with your last posting to say that, with the PDFs from unicode.org, we now have a “complete” list of invisible characters, and a script can be made that covers them all, using correct abbreviations in their N++ representations?

At first look, it seems that anything in those docs that is shown inside a “dashed box”, e.g.:

is a good candidate for a new representation being assigned in a N++ script like the ones above?

If this is the case, I’m surprised that in the script you presented, not all of the seemingly invisible characters from the documents are in the script.

EDIT: Hmm, not sure now about the “dashed box” as I just noticed some dashed boxes in the doc containing things like , and + , so probably the dashed box does not truly identify something as an “invisible character”.

guy038

Hi, @alan-kilborn, @peterjones and All,

From the UnicodeData.txt file https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/UnicodeData.txt

I just extract the lines relative to any character which has a General Category property Cf or Zs ( 3rd field of the list ), i.e. the Format_Control and Space_Separator characters. Indeed, depending of the current font used, these characters may be :

Not displayed at all ( Invisible )
Displayed as a question mark, inside a square or lozenge
Displayed as a white square box
Displayed with a wrong width ( case of a space char )

As a remainder, below, here is a table, giving all values of the Unicode General Category property :

GENERAL_CATEGORY Values :

•----•-----------------------•------------------------------------------------------
| Abv|         Value         |                     Description
•----•-----------------------•------------------------------------------------------
| Lu | Uppercase_Letter      | an UPPERCASE letter
| Ll | Lowercase_Letter      | a LOWERCASE letter
| Lt | Titlecase_Letter      | A DI-GRAPHIC character, with first part UPPERCASE
|    |                       |
| LC | Cased_Letter          | Lu | Ll | Lt
|    |                       |
| Lm | Modifier_Letter       | A MODIFIER letter
| Lo | Other_Letter          | Other letters, including SYLLABLES and IDEOGRAPHS
|    |                       |
| L  | Letter                | Lu | Ll | Lt | Lm | Lo
|    |                       |
| Mn | Nonspacing_Mark       | A NON-SPACING COMBINING mark (zero advance width)
| Mc | Spacing_Mark          | A SPACING COMBINING mark (positive advance width)
| Me | Enclosing_Mark        | An ENCLOSING COMBINING mark
|    |                       |
| M  | Mark                  | Mn | Mc | Me
|    |                       |
| Nd | Decimal_Number        | A DECIMAL digit
| Nl | Letter_Number         | A LETTERLIKE numeric character
| No | Other_Number          | A NUMERIC character of other type
|    |                       |
| N  | Number                | Nd | Nl | No
|    |                       |
| Pc | Connector_Punctuation | A CONNECTING PUNCTUATION mark, like a tie
| Pd | Dash_Punctuation      | A DASH or HYPHEN punctuation mark
| Ps | Open_Punctuation      | An OPENING PUNCTUATION mark (of a pair)
| Pe | Close_Punctuation     | A CLOSING PUNCTUATION mark (of a pair)
| Pi | Initial_Punctuation   | An INITIAL QUOTATION mark
| Pf | Final_Punctuation     | A FINAL QUOTATION mark
| Po | Other_Punctuation     | A PUNCTUATION mark of other type
|    |                       |
| P  | Punctuation           | Pc | Pd | Ps | Pe | Pi | Pf | Po
|    |                       |
| Sm | Math_Symbol           | A symbol of MATHEMATICAL use
| Sc | Currency_Symbol       | A CURRENCY sign
| Sk | Modifier_Symbol       | A NON-LETTERLIKE MODIFIER symbol
| So | Other_Symbol          | A SYMBOL of other type
|    |                       |
| S  | Symbol                | Sm | Sc | Sk | So
|    |                       |
| Zs | Space_Separator       | A SPACE character ( of various NON-ZERO width )
| Zl | Line_Separator        | U+2028 LINE SEPARATOR only
| Zp | Paragraph_Separator   | U+2029 PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR only
|    |                       |
| Z  | Separator             | Zs | Zl | Zp
|    |                       |
| Cc | Control               | A C0 or C1 CONTROL code
| Cf | Format                | A FORMAT CONTROL character
| Cs | Surrogate             | A SURROGATE code point
| Co | Private_Use           | A PRIVATE-USE character
| Cn | Unassigned            | A reserved UNASSIGNED code point or a NON-CHARACTER
|    |                       |
| C  | Other                 | Cc | Cf | Cs | Co | Cn
•----•-----------------------•------------------------------------------------------

And, here is the table of these 178 extracted characters :

•-------•---------•---------------------------------------------•----•-----------•------------------•-------
| Code  | Abbrev. |           Character Name                    | Cg | To search |    N++  Regex    | Char
•-------•---------•---------------------------------------------•----•-----------•------------------•-------
|  0020 |  SP     | SPACE                                       | Zs |    No     |     \x{0020}     |
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  00A0 |  NBSP   | NO-BREAK SPACE                              | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{00A0}     |   
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  00AD |  SHY    | SOFT HYPHEN                                 | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{00AD}     |  
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  0600 |         | ARABIC NUMBER SIGN                          | Cf |    No     |     \x{0600}     |  ؀
|  0601 |         | ARABIC SIGN SANAH                           | Cf |    No     |     \x{0601}     |  ؁
|  0602 |         | ARABIC FOOTNOTE MARKER                      | Cf |    No     |     \x{0602}     |  ؂
|  0603 |         | ARABIC SIGN SAFHA                           | Cf |    No     |     \x{0603}     |  ؃
|  0604 |         | ARABIC SIGN SAMVAT                          | Cf |    No     |     \x{0604}     |  ؄
|  0605 |         | ARABIC NUMBER MARK ABOVE                    | Cf |    No     |     \x{0605}     |  ؅
|  061C |  ALM    | ARABIC LETTER MARK                          | Cf |    No     |     \x{061C}     |  ؜
|  06DD |         | ARABIC END OF AYAH                          | Cf |    No     |     \x{06DD}     |  ۝
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  070F |  SAM    | SYRIAC ABBREVIATION MARK                    | Cf |    No     |     \x{070F}     |  ܏
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  08E2 |         | ARABIC DISPUTED END OF AYAH                 | Cf |    No     |     \x{08E2}     |  ࣢
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  1680 |         | OGHAM SPACE MARK                            | Zs |    No     |     \x{1680}     |   
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  180E |  MVS    | MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR                   | Cf |    No     |     \x{180E}     |  ᠎
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  2000 |  NQSP   | EN QUAD                                     | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2000}     |   
|  2001 |  MQSP   | EM QUAD                                     | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2001}     |   
|  2002 |  ENSP   | EN SPACE                                    | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2002}     |   
|  2003 |  EMSP   | EM SPACE                                    | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2003}     |   
|  2004 |  3/MSP  | THREE-PER-EM SPACE                          | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2004}     |   
|  2005 |  4/MSP  | FOUR-PER-EM SPACE                           | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2005}     |   
|  2006 |  6/MSP  | SIX-PER-EM SPACE                            | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2006}     |   
|  2007 |  FSP    | FIGURE SPACE                                | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2007}     |   
|  2008 |  PSP    | PUNCTUATION SPACE                           | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2008}     |   
|  2009 |  THSP   | THIN SPACE                                  | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{2009}     |   
|  200A |  HSP    | HAIR SPACE                                  | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{200A}     |   
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  200B |  ZWSP   | ZERO WIDTH SPACE                            | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{200B}     |  
|  200C |  ZWNJ   | ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER                       | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{200C}     |  ‌
|  200D |  ZWJ    | ZERO WIDTH JOINER                           | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{200D}     |  ‍
|  200E |  LRM    | LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK                          | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{200E}     |  ‎
|  200F |  RLM    | RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK                          | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{200F}     |  ‏
|  202A |  LRE    | LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING                     | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{202A}     |  ‪
|  202B |  RLE    | RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING                     | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{202B}     |  ‫
|  202C |  PDF    | POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING                  | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{202C}     |  ‬
|  202D |  LRO    | LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE                      | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{202D}     |  ‭
|  202E |  RLO    | RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE                      | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{202E}     |  ‮
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  202F |  NNBSP  | NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE                       | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{202F}     |   
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  205F |  MMSP   | MEDIUM MATHEMATICAL SPACE                   | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{205F}     |   
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  2060 |  WJ     | WORD JOINER                                 | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{2060}     |  ⁠
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  2061 | (FA)    | FUNCTION APPLICATION                        | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{2061}     |  ⁡
|  2062 | (IT)    | INVISIBLE TIMES                             | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{2062}     |  ⁢
|  2063 | (IS)    | INVISIBLE SEPARATOR                         | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{2063}     |  ⁣
|  2064 | (IP)    | INVISIBLE PLUS                              | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{2064}     |  ⁤
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  2066 |  LRI    | LEFT-TO-RIGHT ISOLATE                       | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{2066}     |  ⁦
|  2067 |  RLI    | RIGHT-TO-LEFT ISOLATE                       | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{2067}     |  ⁧
|  2068 |  FSI    | FIRST STRONG ISOLATE                        | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{2068}     |  ⁨
|  2069 |  PDI    | POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE                     | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{2069}     |  ⁩
|  206A |  ISS    | INHIBIT SYMMETRIC SWAPPING                  | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{206A}     |  ⁪
|  206B |  ASS    | ACTIVATE SYMMETRIC SWAPPING                 | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{206B}     |  ⁫
|  206C |  IAFS   | INHIBIT ARABIC FORM SHAPING                 | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{206C}     |  ⁬
|  206D |  AAFS   | ACTIVATE ARABIC FORM SHAPING                | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{206D}     |  ⁭
|  206E |  NADS   | NATIONAL DIGIT SHAPES                       | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{206E}     |  ⁮
|  206F |  NOSP   | NOMINAL DIGIT SHAPES                        | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{206F}     |  ⁯
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  3000 |  IDSP   | IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE                           | Zs |    Yes    |     \x{3000}     |  　
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  FEFF |  ZWNBSP | ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE / BYTE ORDER MARK | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{FEFF}     |  
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
|  FFF9 |  IAA    | INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION ANCHOR               | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{FFF9}     |  ￹
|  FFFA |  IAS    | INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION SEPARATOR            | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{FFFA}     |  ￺
|  FFFB |  IAT    | INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION TERMINATOR           | Cf |    Yes    |     \x{FFFB}     |  ￻
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
| 110BD |  (KNS)  | KAITHI NUMBER SIGN                          | Cf |    No     | \x{D804}\x{DCBD} |  𑂽
| 110CD | (KNSA)  | KAITHI NUMBER SIGN ABOVE                    | Cf |    No     | \x{D804}\x{DCCD} |  𑃍
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
| 13430 | (EHVJ)  | EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH VERTICAL JOINER         | Cf |    No     | \x{D80D}\x{DC30} |  𓐰
| 13431 | (EHHJ)  | EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH HORIZONTAL JOINER       | Cf |    No     | \x{D80D}\x{DC31} |  𓐱
| 13432 | (EHITS) | EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH INSERT AT TOP START     | Cf |    No     | \x{D80D}\x{DC32} |  𓐲
| 13433 | (EHIBS) | EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH INSERT AT BOTTOM START  | Cf |    No     | \x{D80D}\x{DC33} |  𓐳
| 13434 | (EHITE) | EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH INSERT AT TOP END       | Cf |    No     | \x{D80D}\x{DC34} |  𓐴
| 13435 | (EHIBE) | EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH INSERT AT BOTTOM END    | Cf |    No     | \x{D80D}\x{DC35} |  𓐵
| 13436 | (EHOM)  | EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH OVERLAY MIDDLE          | Cf |    No     | \x{D80D}\x{DC36} |  𓐶
| 13437 | (EHBS)  | EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH BEGIN SEGMENT           | Cf |    No     | \x{D80D}\x{DC37} |  𓐷
| 13438 | (EHES)  | EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH END SEGMENT             | Cf |    No     | \x{D80D}\x{DC38} |  𓐸
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
| 1BCA0 | (SFLO)  | SHORTHAND FORMAT LETTER OVERLAP             | Cf |    Yes    | \x{D82F}\x{DCA0} |  𛲠
| 1BCA1 | (SFCO)  | SHORTHAND FORMAT CONTINUING OVERLAP         | Cf |    Yes    | \x{D82F}\x{DCA1} |  𛲡
| 1BCA2 | (SFDS)  | SHORTHAND FORMAT DOWN STEP                  | Cf |    Yes    | \x{D82F}\x{DCA2} |  𛲢
| 1BCA3 | (SFUS)  | SHORTHAND FORMAT UP STEP                    | Cf |    Yes    | \x{D82F}\x{DCA3} |  𛲣
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
| 1D173 | (MSBB)  | MUSICAL SYMBOL BEGIN BEAM                   | Cf |    No     | \x{D834}\x{DD73} |  𝅳
| 1D174 | (MSEB)  | MUSICAL SYMBOL END BEAM                     | Cf |    No     | \x{D834}\x{DD74} |  𝅴
| 1D175 | (MSBT)  | MUSICAL SYMBOL BEGIN TIE                    | Cf |    No     | \x{D834}\x{DD75} |  𝅵
| 1D176 | (MSET)  | MUSICAL SYMBOL END TIE                      | Cf |    No     | \x{D834}\x{DD76} |  𝅶
| 1D177 | (MSBS)  | MUSICAL SYMBOL BEGIN SLUR                   | Cf |    No     | \x{D834}\x{DD77} |  𝅷
| 1D178 | (MSES)  | MUSICAL SYMBOL END SLUR                     | Cf |    No     | \x{D834}\x{DD78} |  𝅸
| 1D179 | (MSBP)  | MUSICAL SYMBOL BEGIN PHRASE                 | Cf |    No     | \x{D834}\x{DD79} |  𝅹
| 1D17A | (MSEP)  | MUSICAL SYMBOL END PHRASE                   | Cf |    No     | \x{D834}\x{DD7A} |  𝅺
|       |         |                                             |    |           |                  |
| E0001 |  BEGIN  | LANGUAGE TAG                                | Cf |    No     | \x{DB40}\x{DC01} |  󠀁
| E0020 |  SP     | TAG SPACE                                   | Cf |    No     | \x{DB40}\x{DC20} |  󠀠
| ..... |         | ........................................... | .. |    No     | ................ |  .
| ..... |         | ........................................... | .. |    No     | ................ |  .
| ..... |         | ........................................... | .. |    No     | ................ |  .
| E007E |  ~      | TAG TILDE                                   | Cf |    No     | \x{DB40}\x{DC7E} |  󠁾
| E007F |  END    | CANCEL TAG                                  | Cf |    No     | \x{DB40}\x{DC7F} |  󠁿
•-------•---------•---------------------------------------------•----•-----------•------------------•------

Continuation on next post !

guy038

guy038

Hi All,

Continuation …

From this last table, we can reasonably ignore :

The space and soft hyphen characters
Some musical characters
All the characters, specific to a language, modern or archaic
The tag characters, whose usage is strongly discouraged by the Unicode consortium.

In other words, all characters with the No indication, in the To search column, of the previous table !

As a result, we should only take care of this restricted list of 50 characters :

•-------•---------•---------------------------------------------•----•------------------•-----•
| Code  | Abbrev. |           Character Name                    | Cg |    N++  Regex    | Chr |
•-------•---------•---------------------------------------------•----•------------------•-----•
|  00A0 |  NBSP   | NO-BREAK SPACE                              | Zs |     \x{00A0}     |     |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  2000 |  NQSP   | EN QUAD                                     | Zs |     \x{2000}     |     |
|  2001 |  MQSP   | EM QUAD                                     | Zs |     \x{2001}     |     |
|  2002 |  ENSP   | EN SPACE                                    | Zs |     \x{2002}     |     |
|  2003 |  EMSP   | EM SPACE                                    | Zs |     \x{2003}     |     |
|  2004 |  3/MSP  | THREE-PER-EM SPACE                          | Zs |     \x{2004}     |     |
|  2005 |  4/MSP  | FOUR-PER-EM SPACE                           | Zs |     \x{2005}     |     |
|  2006 |  6/MSP  | SIX-PER-EM SPACE                            | Zs |     \x{2006}     |     |
|  2007 |  FSP    | FIGURE SPACE                                | Zs |     \x{2007}     |     |
|  2008 |  PSP    | PUNCTUATION SPACE                           | Zs |     \x{2008}     |     |
|  2009 |  THSP   | THIN SPACE                                  | Zs |     \x{2009}     |     |
|  200A |  HSP    | HAIR SPACE                                  | Zs |     \x{200A}     |     |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  200B |  ZWSP   | ZERO WIDTH SPACE                            | Cf |     \x{200B}     |    |
|  200C |  ZWNJ   | ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER                       | Cf |     \x{200C}     |  ‌  |
|  200D |  ZWJ    | ZERO WIDTH JOINER                           | Cf |     \x{200D}     |  ‍  |
|  200E |  LRM    | LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK                          | Cf |     \x{200E}     |  ‎  |
|  200F |  RLM    | RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK                          | Cf |     \x{200F}     |  ‏  |
|  202A |  LRE    | LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING                     | Cf |     \x{202A}     |  ‪  |
|  202B |  RLE    | RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING                     | Cf |     \x{202B}     |  ‫  |
|  202C |  PDF    | POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING                  | Cf |     \x{202C}     |  ‬  |
|  202D |  LRO    | LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE                      | Cf |     \x{202D}     |  ‭  |
|  202E |  RLO    | RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE                      | Cf |     \x{202E}     |  ‮  |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  202F |  NNBSP  | NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE                       | Zs |     \x{202F}     |     |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  205F |  MMSP   | MEDIUM MATHEMATICAL SPACE                   | Zs |     \x{205F}     |     |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  2060 |  WJ     | WORD JOINER                                 | Cf |     \x{2060}     |  ⁠  |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  2061 | (FA)    | FUNCTION APPLICATION                        | Cf |     \x{2061}     |  ⁡  |
|  2062 | (IT)    | INVISIBLE TIMES                             | Cf |     \x{2062}     |  ⁢  |
|  2063 | (IS)    | INVISIBLE SEPARATOR                         | Cf |     \x{2063}     |  ⁣  |
|  2064 | (IP)    | INVISIBLE PLUS                              | Cf |     \x{2064}     |  ⁤  |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  2066 |  LRI    | LEFT-TO-RIGHT ISOLATE                       | Cf |     \x{2066}     |  ⁦  |
|  2067 |  RLI    | RIGHT-TO-LEFT ISOLATE                       | Cf |     \x{2067}     |  ⁧  |
|  2068 |  FSI    | FIRST STRONG ISOLATE                        | Cf |     \x{2068}     |  ⁨  |
|  2069 |  PDI    | POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE                     | Cf |     \x{2069}     |  ⁩  |
|  206A |  ISS    | INHIBIT SYMMETRIC SWAPPING                  | Cf |     \x{206A}     |  ⁪  |
|  206B |  ASS    | ACTIVATE SYMMETRIC SWAPPING                 | Cf |     \x{206B}     |  ⁫  |
|  206C |  IAFS   | INHIBIT ARABIC FORM SHAPING                 | Cf |     \x{206C}     |  ⁬  |
|  206D |  AAFS   | ACTIVATE ARABIC FORM SHAPING                | Cf |     \x{206D}     |  ⁭  |
|  206E |  NADS   | NATIONAL DIGIT SHAPES                       | Cf |     \x{206E}     |  ⁮  |
|  206F |  NOSP   | NOMINAL DIGIT SHAPES                        | Cf |     \x{206F}     |  ⁯  |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  3000 |  IDSP   | IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE                           | Zs |     \x{3000}     |  　  |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  FEFF |  ZWNBSP | ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE / BYTE ORDER MARK | Cf |     \x{FEFF}     |    |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  FFF9 |  IAA    | INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION ANCHOR               | Cf |     \x{FFF9}     |  ￹  |
|  FFFA |  IAS    | INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION SEPARATOR            | Cf |     \x{FFFA}     |  ￺  |
|  FFFB |  IAT    | INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION TERMINATOR           | Cf |     \x{FFFB}     |  ￻  |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
|  FFFC |  OBJ    | OBJECT REPLACEMENT CHARACTER                | So |     \x{FFFC}     |    |
|  FFFD |  ?      | REPLACEMENT CHARACTER                       | So |     \x{FFFD}     |  �  |
|       |         |                                             |    |                  |     |
| 1BCA0 | (SFLO)  | SHORTHAND FORMAT LETTER OVERLAP             | Cf | \x{D82F}\x{DCA0} |  𛲠  |
| 1BCA1 | (SFCO)  | SHORTHAND FORMAT CONTINUING OVERLAP         | Cf | \x{D82F}\x{DCA1} |  𛲡  |
| 1BCA2 | (SFDS)  | SHORTHAND FORMAT DOWN STEP                  | Cf | \x{D82F}\x{DCA2} |  𛲢  |
| 1BCA3 | (SFUS)  | SHORTHAND FORMAT UP STEP                    | Cf | \x{D82F}\x{DCA3} |  𛲣  |
•-------•---------•---------------------------------------------•----•------------------•-----•

Remark that I added, to that list, the two characters Object Replacement Character \x{FFFC} and Replacement Character \x{FFFD} often used in case of encoding problems !

Then the updated Mark regex would be :

MARK [\x{00A0}\x{2000}-\x{200A}\x{200B}-\x{200F}\x{202A}-\x{202E}\x{202F}\x{205F}-\x{206F}\x{3000}\x{FEFF}\x{FFF9}-\x{FFFD}\x{D82F}\x{DCA0}\x{D82F}\x{DCA1}\x{D82F}\x{DCA2}\x{D82F}\x{DCA3}]

And the updated Python script is :

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from Npp import editor, notepad, NOTIFICATION

class SRFSC(object):

    def __init__(self):
        notepad.callback(self.callback_npp_BUFFERACTIVATED, [NOTIFICATION.BUFFERACTIVATED])
        self.callback_npp_BUFFERACTIVATED(None)

    def callback_npp_BUFFERACTIVATED(self, args):

        # SPACE chars ( Zs )

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u00A0', "NBSP")    # no-break space

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2000', "NQSP")    # EN quad
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2001', "MQSP")    # EM quad
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2002', "ENSP")    # EN space
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2003', "EMSP")    # EN space

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2004', "3/MSP")   # three-per-EM space
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2005', "4/MSP")   # four-per-EM space
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2006', "6/MSP")   # six-per-EM space

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2007', "FSP")     # figure space
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2008', "PSP")     # punctuation space
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2009', "THSP")    # thin space
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200A', "HSP")     # hair space

        # FORMAT chars ( Cf )

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200B', "ZWSP")    # zero width space

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200C', "ZWNJ")    # zero width non-joiner
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200D', "ZWJ")     # zero width joiner

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200E', "LRM")     # left-to-right mark
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u200F', "RLM")     # right-to-left mark

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202A', "LRE")     # left-to-right embedding
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202B', "RLE")     # right-to-left embedding

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202C', "PDF")     # pop directional formatting

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202D', "LRO")     # left-to-right override
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202E', "RLO")     # right-to-left override

        # SPACE chars ( Zs )

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u202F', "NNBSP")   # narrow no-break space

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u205F', "NNBSP")   # medium mathematical space


        # FORMAT chars ( Cf )

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2060', "WJ")      # word joiner ( zero width no-break space )

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2061', "FA")      # function application

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2062', "IT")      # invisible times
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2063', "IS")      # invisible separator
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2064', "IP")      # invisible plus

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2066', "LRI")     # left-to-right isolate
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2067', "RLI")     # right-to-left isolate

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2068', "FSI")     # first strong isolate
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u2069', "PDI")     # pop directional isolate

        # FORMAT chars ( Cf ) DEPRECATED

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206A', "ISS")     # inhibit symmetric swapping
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206B', "ASS")     # activate symmetric swapping

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206C', "IAFS")    # inhibit arabic form shaping
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206D', "AAFS")    # activate arabic form shaping

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206E', "NADS")    # national digit shapes
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u206F', "NODS")    # nominal digit shapes

        # SPACE chars ( Zs )

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\u3000', "IDSP")    # ideographic space

        # FORMAT chars ( Cf ) SPECIALS

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFEFF', "ZWNBSP")  # zero width no-break space : deprecated ( see U+2060 ) / byte order mark

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFFF9', "IAA")     # interlinear annotation anchor
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFFFA', "IAS")     # interlinear annotation separator
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFFFB', "IAT")     # interlinear annotation terminator

        # OTHER symbols ( So )

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFFFC', "OBJ")     # object replacement character
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uFFFD', "<?>")     # replacement character

        # FORMAT chars ( Cf )

        # For characters OVER the BMP, with code > FFFF, we can use, EITHER, the syntaxes :

        #    - editor.setRepresentation(u'\U0001BCA0', "SFLO")    TRUE "32-bits" representation
        #    - editor.setRepresentation(u'\uD82F\uDCA0', "SFLO")  The   16-bits "SURROGATES PAIR"

        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uD82F\uDCA0', "SFLO")   # shorthand format letter overlap
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uD82F\uDCA1', "SFCO")   # shorthand format continuing overlap
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uD82F\uDCA2', "SFDS")   # shorthand format down step
        editor.setRepresentation(u'\uD82F\uDCA3', "SFUS")   # shorthand format up step

        # Active the character representation

        notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS)
        notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.VIEW_ALL_CHARACTERS)

SRFSC()

I did not investigate in the S/R, because of the number of chars to handle ( 50 ) and because I’m just feeling… lazy for such a task !

However with the Mark operation, which helps you to locate exactly where are these special characters and the Python script which clearly identify them, you should be safe with your file’s contents ;-))

Best Regards

guy038

Alan Kilborn

This thread largely talks about making “invisible” characters visible.

Recently I had a need/desire to make characters with a visible component invisible, i.e. “go the other way”.

Example:

So for the above, I’d like to “turn off” the control characters and focus only on the “meat” of the data:

This is only for visualization purposes; I’m not editing this data.

Long story short is I ran into trouble doing this. I found I can change the representation of the characters, using PythonScript, e.g., executing editor.setRepresentation(u'\u0002', 'startxmit') will then show:

But my guess at what was needed to hide the U+0002 character entirely didn’t work:

editor.setRepresentation(u'\u0002', '')

produces:

which is “better” but still has a visual component.

editor.clearRepresentation(u'\u0002') only brings back the default visualizaton of STX.

Any ideas on how to solve this, i.e., eliminate the visual component of a control character?

Ekopalypse

@Alan-Kilborn

Adhoc, the only thing I can think of is to give the control chars a style and set the visible property to false.
Practically like the error list lexer does with the ANSI sequences.

Alan Kilborn

@Ekopalypse said in Invisible characters unwanted:

Adhoc, the only thing I can think of is to give the control chars a style and set the visible property to false.
Practically like the error list lexer does with the ANSI sequences.

That sounds like a lot of work, both coding wise and runtime wise. I was hoping that I was misunderstanding some simple thing about how Scintilla does “representation”, but from lack of replies, and direction of the one reply, it appears I am not missing that “simple thing”.

I think it is odd that Scintilla basically forces me to see always see “control characters”, but never shows me certain UTF-8 characters.

Alan Kilborn

Someone else found the solution for me:

set the control character’s representation to the “zero-width space” character (so it has no visual component – but it will have a small “inverse video” artifact on-screen)
set the representation appearance to plain text (to avoid the inverse video)

Although, to script this (as I tend to do) is difficult as the set-representation-appearance Scintilla command is not yet available as an editor command in the PythonScript versions that are current as of this writing.