You can also manually download ComparePlus v1.1.0 from the link that @pnedev provided, and install it in your v8.4.6 or v8.4.7 Notepad++, even if it hasn’t made it to the Plugins Admin (which it won’t until v8.4.8 at this point)

Will it take some time until it appears there?

Yes, it isn’t dynamic. Plugin developers, after releasing a new version of their plugin, have to request that N++'s plugin info be updated. Apparently the boat was missed for getting this into 8.4.7 and will have to wait for what’s next.

EDIT: I’ve been informed that the plugin author’s request was made for updating N++'s plugin list info in time (theoretically) but the release machinery was already in motion, so the update for ComparePlus 1.1 didn’t make it in. Chalk it up to unfortunate timing. :-(

ComparePlus v1.1.0 is ready.
These are the release notes - shortly, several bugs have been fixed, the command line issues discussed here have been resolved (the command line should be notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare new_file.txt old_file.txt and as @Vitalii-Dovgan suggested there are settings to enable/disable the toolbar icons.
The new version of the plugin is using the new Scintilla headers coming with Notepad++ v8.4.7 but I have tested it with N++ v8.4.6 as well and it worked OK.
Enjoy!

BR

Several more things to directly answer your questions and to give you some idea on the Notepad++ implementation for the plugin messages (at least as I remember it and as I understand it):

So is this actually a bug in the ComparePlus plugin?

I don’t consider it a bug, it is simply how I have implemented that functionality.

Does it work without the double quotes because it must be used as the last argument on the N++ command line, and anything after -pluginMessage= is passed to the plugin and not looked at at all by N++?

Again, it works that way because I have implemented it that way and it is not meant to be the last option on the command line.
I think Notepad++ will get everything after -pluginMessage= and send it to the plugins regardless of the quotes. If there are quotes then the message will include the spaces inside otherwise it will stop on the first space. That’s my idea on that, I haven’t checked it (at least now) but I surely have done some tests back then when I implemented the message parsing.

And how does N++ know that this specific one is meant for the ComparePlus plugin?

It doesn’t know. It sends the message to all plugins.

So what I understood about the Notepad++ “message to plugins” function when I was implementing the handling in CP is that on Notepad++ start it parses the command line and sends dedicated message to all plugins with the string from the command line.
I didn’t like that enough for my needs so I implemented N++ command line parsing directly in CP and I do not handle the N++ plugin message. I wanted to avoid parsing the plugins message string because that would mean that I had to avoid accidentally matching “compare” word if another plugin used it or to implement some other more distinctive string to trigger compare.
I wanted the compare trigger to be something simple so the user doesn’t have to write much on the command line so I simply check if the command line contains -pluginMessage=compare.

The compare trigger is
-pluginMessage=compare exactly (thanks for the double -- notice. The quotes must be omitted from the plugin message.
All plugins (that care about it) may parse the string after the equality sign (so the string compare gets to all plugins that care to check it). This should not be a problem and ComparePlus cannot avoid that.
The right way to go is to compare the files that are given on the command line but outside the pluginMessage string. That is because this way Notepad++ actually opens the files automatically and I don’t have to open them myself :) (which is of course not that much of a problem but its better to leave that to Notepad++) and because of the spaces in the files (or their path) as you mentioned although that might be avoided as in Python by using single quotes for example.

My idea was to give the user a way to quickly and directly trigger compare from the command line and not to do some sophisticated things (at least that was the initial intention).
I am working on the sessions problem and which file is the first and the second and which of the two is considered the new and which the old. Other than that I don’t intend to change the compare process trigger (that is the -pluginMessage=compare option) as it serves its purpose. If you think it is not enough and might bring confusion or problems please share your thoughts on such cases and your ideas and I will consider them.
I appreciate your feedback, thanks.

@guy038 ,
Thanks for the tests. Just to mention that in your last try the comparison was not started because the compare was in quotes. If only one file is given on the command line the comparison should not start (at least that’s the intention).
Thank you.

BR

Your analysis is good to know, and thank you, but lest anyone think your reply fully answers my questions, it does not. If no one else replies, then perhaps to get to the bottom of it, a dive into the source code for Notepad++ is going to be in order.

Alan, I did some tests with files with a space character. If I assume that no instance of Notepad++ is running before each test, the command line behavior of the Compare-plus plugin is presently :

• notepad++ -nosession -pluginMessage=compare "E:\844_x64\cha nge.log" "E:\844_x64\cop ie.log" opens a new instance of N++ with the two tabs cha nge.log and cop ie.log only which are correctly compared

• notepad++ -nosession -pluginMessage="compare E:\844_x64\cha nge.log E:\844_x64\cop ie.log" opens a new instance of N++ with the new 1 tab only

• notepad++ -nosession -pluginMessage="compare" "E:\844_x64\cha nge.log" "E:\844_x64\cop ie.log" opens a new instance of N++ with the two tabs cha nge.log and cop ie.log only but without any comparison process

Best Regards,

guy038

Try removing the quotes from compare - run it like that:
–pluginMessage=compare

So is this actually a bug in the ComparePlus plugin?
(I don’t mean the -- part, which obviously should have just been -, I mean the lack of quotes)

From the description in the N++ user manual HERE, I’d say a correct argument looks like this:

-pluginMessage="compare filepath1 filepath2"

(And of course, if either of the filepaths contains spaces, then my brain is starting to hurt, but…)

Does it work without the double quotes because it must be used as the last argument on the N++ command line, and anything after -pluginMessage= is passed to the plugin and not looked at at all by N++?

And how does N++ know that this specific one is meant for the ComparePlus plugin? Or does this same message get sent to all plugins? (that would strike me as “not a good thing”)

don’t bother about my previous post ! No need to investigate further about the provided cases. The solution was obvious

I don’t know that I agree fully with that.

It seems reasonable to want to do a command line compare and start the compare automatically between the 2 files where the files are loaded into a running Notepad++'s current session.

Of course, a user doing this would probably want to close the 2 files when they are done analyzing the compare, to avoid the files remaining in the remembered session, but even that is not a certaintly.

I suppose -nosession is ignored if N++ is already running (with a session) and another command line invocation of notepad++.exe occurs (without -multiInst).

Maybe that’s the ultimate solution for something like a “git difftool” solution using this new plugin capability: using -multiInst -nosession -pluginMessage=compare…

the parameter to use is -nosession ( and not -noSession )

You’re right. However, I will take the opportunity to say that it is a bit odd that it is this way (all lowercase) when, -openSession (one I use often) is mixed case.

@pnedev, don’t bother about my previous post ! No need to investigate further about the provided cases. The solution was obvious ! Always use the syntax :

...\notepad++ -nosession -pluginMessage=compare Old_file.txt New_file.txt

BTW, @alan-kilborn, the parameter to use is -nosession ( and not -noSession ) !

Best Regards

guy038

Maybe also test with the N++ argument -noSession ?

You are right. The command line compare works correctly only in case there is no auto-restored session. Otherwise it might mess things up.
I’ll look into it for the next version, thanks.

BR

Try removing the quotes from compare - run it like that:
–pluginMessage=compare
Sorry for the misleading info in the description, my bad.

That works; thanks.

Ah… OK !. So the correct syntax is :

...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare Old_file.txt New_file.txt

Howewer, we have to consider different cases. Let’s consider a session with two files change.log and copy.log ( with a few changes compared to change.log) and some other tabs, too :

• The change.log and copy.log tabs exist, both, in current N++ session AND the copy.log tab comes next to the change.log tab. After closing N++ :

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare change.log copy.log works correctly

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare copy.log change.log does not work correctly

• The change.log and copy.log tabs exist, both, in current N++ session AND the change.log tab comes next to the copy.log tab. After closing N++ :

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare change.log copy.log does not work correctly

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare copy.log change.log works corectly

• The change.log and copy.log tabs exist, both, in current N++ session BUT the copy.log tab and change.log tab are not adjacent. After closing N++ :

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare change.log copy.log does not work correctly

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare copy.log change.log does not work correctly

• The change.log tab only exists in current N++ session and is the last one. After closing N++ :

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare change.log copy.log works correctly

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare copy.log change.log does not work correctly

• The change.log tab only exists in current N++ session and is not the last one. After closing N++ :

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare change.log copy.log does not work correctly

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare copy.log change.log does not work correctly

• The copy.log tab only exists in current N++ session and is the last one. After closing N++ :

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare change.log copy.log does not work correctly

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare copy.log change.log works correctly

• The copy.log tab only exists in current N++ session and is not the last one. After closing N++ :

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare change.log copy.log does not work correctly

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare copy.log change.log does not work correctly

• The two tabs change.log and copy.log do not exist in current N++ session. After closing N++ :

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare change.log copy.log works correctly

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare copy.log change.log works correctly

Of course, all the previous cases happen if the current session contains, in addition, some tabs different from change.log AND copy.log

In the rare cases where the current session contains only the two files change.log and copy.log or one of the two or no file at all :

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare change.log copy.log works correctly in all cases

=> The CMD command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare copy.log change.log works correctly in all cases

So, @pnedev, I suppose that you need to define the first file with the Set as First to Compare option and, probably, a new Set as Second to Compare option, used internally, to define the second file, in order that the DOS prompt command ...\notepad++ -pluginMessage=compare Old_file.txt New_file.txt always starts the comparison of the given files in all cases ?!

Best Regards,

guy038

@Vitalii-Dovgan,

Any reason not to use the CustomizeToolbar plugin?
IMO it’s a must-have plugin regardless of ComparePlus.

The CustomizeToolbar has two tiny issues which are actually not issues for most of people but are issues for me. First, CustomizeToolbar makes Notepad++'s toolbar to blink (repaint) during start-up. Second, CustomizeToolbar slows down Notepad++'s startup for almost a second (for a cold start). As I wrote, these are not issues for most of the people, but I’m very sensitive to such things.

Try removing the quotes from compare - run it like that:

--pluginMessage=compare

Sorry for the misleading info in the description, my bad.

I’ve seen other useful software tools slowly disappear due to software rot, so even if you hadn’t added new features I think it’s great just for the maintenance of such a useful utility 👍

Command line usage? Are you serious!?!?! OMG, it works!

I’m not able to get command-line use working.
I presume that it is supposed to load the files and then start the compare on them, but that’s just a presumption on how I think it should work; I haven’t seen anything that says that.

It loads the files, but doesn’t start the compare. The plugin itself loaded fine as I can see the toolbar buttons and I can start the compare manually, but…

I think I’m doing it correctly:

Anyone have any hints for me?

I’ll consider your suggestion, thanks!

BR

Any reason not to use the CustomizeToolbar plugin?
IMO it’s a must-have plugin regardless of ComparePlus.

This plugin adds 10 toolbar buttons.

Wow, 10 toolbar buttons seems excessive. Maybe this would have been better served by having a dedicated panel for this plugin, similar in base concept to the panel in the Changed Lines plugin.