Access Violation Specifically With 'Unwrap Text' within TextFX
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I have tried testing with a fresh install, with earlier versions – I am fresh out of debugging ideas.
When I attempt to use the ‘Unwrap Text’ command within TextFX Characters in Notepad 8.4.2, I get the ‘Access violation’ error.
I cannot seem to determine what causes this, or how it can be cured, or with what version the error began showing.
Any help would be very sincerely appreciated.
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@mike-harris
The likely PROBLEM.
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@alan-kilborn Respectfully, the page does not seem to be applicable. Please note the problem does not crash NPP; the problem exists on two entirely separate computers; and the plugin in question is TextFX.
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@mike-harris said in Access Violation Specifically With 'Unwrap Text' within TextFX:
Respectfully, the page does not seem to be applicable.
Okay…well you seem to know a lot for someone asking for help.
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@mike-harris said in Access Violation Specifically With 'Unwrap Text' within TextFX:
Respectfully, the page does not seem to be applicable. Please note the problem does not crash NPP
Respectfully, it is applicable. Even if it is not causing Notepad++ to crash, it is causing an error. The TextFX plugin has not been updated to be compatible with Notepad++ v8.4.2, and hence the plugin is asserting an error under certain conditions.
the problem exists on two entirely separate computers
That doesn’t change the fact that it’s the plugin’s fault.
FYI: That plugin was abandoned years ago (2009 was the last official release, so it’s more than a decade out of date), so likely no one is going to fix the plugin for you; unless you grab the source code and modify it for yourself, this plugin is likely to never work for you again in modern Notepad++ versions.
Besides, many features of TextFX are available natively in Notepad++ nowadays, and many more are otherwise reasonably easy to implement using a script in the PythonScript plugin or similar; you might consider looking into alternatives for whatever critical features you’ve been getting from that decade-ago-abandoned plugin.
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@alan-kilborn It’s probably not fruitful for me to get into a personality conflict. The first sentence of that page states: “[y]ou have been directed here because you have expressed concern that your copy of Notepad++ crashes every time you load it or run after an update, or it otherwise freezes or is unresponsive.”
None of that is the case. That is why I don’t believe the page is relevant. I get an ‘access violation’ error when I try to use the ‘Unwrap Text’ command, but it does not cause Notepad++ to crash, freeze, or become unresponsive.
Header: Possible Culprit: Known Issue on New Release - I tried reverting to 8.4, and saw the error there. That’s been out since April 26.
Header: Possible Culprit: Plugin - Well, true, but a plugin used by a large swath of the community, and my question is if someone else is experiencing it.
Header: Possible Culprit: Your Installation - It’s a problem showing up on two separate installations that differ, and I tried wiping out and trying it with a clean install.
Wrote this prior to seeing Mr. Jones’ response.
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@mike-harris said:
The first sentence of that page states: “[y]ou have been directed here because you have expressed concern that your copy of Notepad++ crashes every time you load it or run after an update, or it otherwise freezes or is unresponsive.”
In my book, an access violation is a crash. Just because a program may attempt to continue after that, all bets are off about data integrity and it is best to think of it like a traditional crash.
By the way, the FAQ entry exists because we here get tired of typing the same stuff all the time. So it may not be entirely customized for your (generic “your”) complaint, but I didn’t just direct you there randomly.
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@mike-harris said in Access Violation Specifically With 'Unwrap Text' within TextFX:
None of that is the case. That is why I don’t believe the page is relevant
By including “crashes”, “freezes”, and “unresponsive”, I was trying to cover as many variations of “there’s a problem” as I had run across so far – the “access violation” error was a new symptom of the same problem to my knowledge. I will rephrase the FAQ.
The exact cause of TextFX not working in v8.4 and v8.4.1 is explained here … but that explanation boils down to “TextFX would need to update its source code to be compatible with the Scintilla component of the Notepad++ v8.4-and-newer”, which is exactly the kind of problem that the FAQ will help you to diagnose.
Plugin - Well, true, but a plugin used by a large swath of the community, and my question is if someone else is experiencing it.
Mostly, that plugin is used by people who refuse to find alternatives. Ever since Notepad++ introduced the 64bit in v7.0 in 2016, with no official 64-bit version of TextFX released by that plugin’s author, the writing has been on the wall for users of that plugin. To continue to use it 13 years after the last update, and 6 years after the 64bit migration proved that the plugin was dying, is a risk that such users are taking upon themselves.
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@peterjones said in Access Violation Specifically With 'Unwrap Text' within TextFX:
I will rephrase the FAQ.
It now says,
You have likely been directed here because you have expressed concern that your copy of Notepad++ crashes every time you load it or run after an update, or it otherwise freezes or is unresponsive or gives you an arcane error message, or one of the members of the Community has reason to think that you have a problem related to one of your plugins no longer maintaining its compatibility with modern versions of Notepad++.
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@peterjones For some of us who have no knowledge of programming, but appreciate Notepad++ for its many text-handling functions, it is not simple to write scripts to replace TextFX functions. If someone has made public ones available, I would be indebted to you for a link.
I was not trying to argue when responding to the first respondent; I was merely trying to civilly follow-up on the ‘you seem to know a lot’ comment.
Thank you to both of you for your time in providing the responses you gave in this thread.
(Mr. Jones, FWIW, the confirmation e-mail the forum sends out doesn’t seem to be sending; I’ve tried prompting it three times. I have checked in spam and trash folders.)
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@molly-harris said in Access Violation Specifically With 'Unwrap Text' within TextFX:
it is not simple to write scripts to replace TextFX functions. If someone has made public ones available, I would be indebted to you for a link.
There probably are scripts to replace most TextFX functions, but they’d be scattered about and you’d have to ferret them out with some searches. There’s no coordinated effort to maintain a list of scripts that replace TextFX functions. If you’d like to make one, I’m sure Peter Jones would be agreeable to creating an entry in the FAQ section here with such data.
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@molly-harris said in Access Violation Specifically With 'Unwrap Text' within TextFX:
FWIW, the confirmation e-mail the forum sends out doesn’t seem to be sending; I’ve tried prompting it three times. I have checked in spam and trash folders
The email notifications and the associated confirmation email seem to be hit-and-miss. Until last year, there were no email notifications, despite the feature having been listed in settings for all the time of this forum; then one day, they suddenly started working … somewhat. Unfortunately, I cannot give any advice to make it work better. The best thing to do is: when you are actively involved in a conversation here, come back at least once a day to the forum until the conversation has ended – that works even if you aren’t getting the email notifications.
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Purely FWIW if some other person hits this thread for an answer, it looks like regressing to 8.3.3 solved my issue. 8.4 caused the error, so I’m presuming somewhere in the 8.3.3 -> 8.4 jump is what caused the issue.
I understand that working around TextFX’s bugs is an entirely losing proposition for anyone maintaining Notepad++. I am merely noting this for those searching for a temporary fix to the issue.
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@molly-harris said in Access Violation Specifically With 'Unwrap Text' within TextFX:
I am merely noting this for those searching for a temporary fix to the issue.
And normally I wouldn’t respond to that, but you said:
it looks like regressing to 8.3.3 solved my issue. 8.4 caused the error
And thus I feel I must set the record straight if other readers come along and believe the statement above.
8.4 did not cause the error; using a decade old plugin caused the error.
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@alan-kilborn said in Access Violation Specifically With 'Unwrap Text' within TextFX:
If you’d like to make one, I’m sure Peter Jones would be agreeable to creating an entry in the FAQ section here with such data.
Created and initially populated
(I had a spare hour before dinner today)