Change History markers

richlux

Is there a way to have the Change History markers automatically clear when the file is saved? It makes more sense to have the Change History markers show changes since the file was last saved and not since the file was last opened.

Thanks,
Rich

Lycan Thrope

@richlux ,
Not if you’re still editing the file, and don’t remember if something was changed, or accidentally changed something. Having saved changes (green) that show while still editing the document and making more changes (orange) let’s you know you didn’t save those changes, and still need to.

richlux

@Lycan-Thrope Wow, thanks! I’m color blind and had no idea the color changed after it was saved. Being red/green color blind (as most color blind people are), orange and green are perhaps the worse two colors to use. Do you know if the colors can be customized? I couldn’t find a setting anywhere for that.

Thanks,
Rich

Alan Kilborn

@richlux said in Change History markers:

Do you know if the colors can be customized?

Currently Notepad++ doesn’t allow direct access to that.
But it should be doable via scripting, if you’re interested in that type of solution (involves using a plugin).

richlux

@Alan-Kilborn Thanks. If I do it via a script, will I need to re-run it every time I upgrade NPP?

Rich

Alan Kilborn

@richlux said in Change History markers:

If I do it via a script, will I need to re-run it every time I upgrade NPP?

Nope, it would be a “set it and forget it” type thing, and it would persist across update installs.

It would be set (i.e., the colors changed) every time Notepad++ starts up, but you wouldn’t be involved; stuff can be set to be run automatically on startup.

richlux

@Alan-Kilborn Thanks. I’ll have to look into doing this.

Rich

Michael Vincent

@richlux

Have a look at Changed Lines. This may help if you just want to change colors.

Cheers.

Alan Kilborn

…colors can be customized?

Here’s a demo script that shows how it can be done, for one of the colors:

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

from Npp import *

RGB_TUPLE = (255, 0, 0)

SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_ORIGIN   = 21
SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_SAVED                = 22
SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_MODIFIED             = 23
SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_MODIFIED = 24

editor.markerSetBack(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_MODIFIED, RGB_TUPLE)
editor.markerSetFore(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_MODIFIED, RGB_TUPLE)

For more info on scripting in general see the FAQ entry for it.

richlux

@Alan-Kilborn Thank you so much for this sample. It is very helpful. I’m going to submit a feature request to see if they will add this as a setting that can be changed.

Rich

richlux

@Alan-Kilborn That worked great. Can you tell me what I need to put in the startup.py to have this script file run at startup automatically?

Rich

Alan Kilborn

@richlux said in Change History markers:

what I need to put in the startup.py to have this script file run at startup automatically?

Let’s formalize the script a bit more, which will allow what you’re asking in a nice fashion.

I’ll call the script ChangeHistoryColors.py and revise it thusly:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from __future__ import print_function

#########################################
#
#  ChangeHistoryColors (CHC)
#
#########################################

# references:
#  https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/24309/change-history-markers

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

from Npp import *

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

class CHC(object):

    def __init__(self):

        RGB_TUPLE = (255, 0, 0)

        SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_ORIGIN   = 21
        SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_SAVED                = 22
        SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_MODIFIED             = 23
        SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_MODIFIED = 24

        editor.markerSetBack(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_MODIFIED, RGB_TUPLE)
        editor.markerSetFore(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_MODIFIED, RGB_TUPLE)

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if __name__ == '__main__': CHC()

Then, to embed a call to it in the startup (User) script, do this:

import ChangeHistoryColors
ChangeHistoryColors.CHC()

richlux

@Alan-Kilborn That works great. Thanks again for all your help. I actually modified your script a little so only changes since the last save are highlighted. Here’s the core of it in case someone else want’s to use it.

RGB_MODIFIED = (255, 0, 0)
RGB_SAVED = (228, 228, 228)

SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_ORIGIN   = 21
SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_SAVED                = 22
SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_MODIFIED             = 23
SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_MODIFIED = 24

editor.markerSetBack(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_MODIFIED, RGB_MODIFIED)
editor.markerSetFore(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_MODIFIED, RGB_MODIFIED)

editor.markerSetBack(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_ORIGIN, RGB_MODIFIED)
editor.markerSetFore(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_ORIGIN, RGB_MODIFIED)

editor.markerSetBack(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_MODIFIED, RGB_MODIFIED)
editor.markerSetFore(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_REVERTED_TO_MODIFIED, RGB_MODIFIED)

editor.markerSetBack(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_SAVED, RGB_SAVED)
editor.markerSetFore(SC_MARKNUM_HISTORY_SAVED, RGB_SAVED)

Rich

richlux

@Alan-Kilborn I have one last question for you. Is there something that needs to be done to get the startup (User) script to run when NPP is started? It doesn’t seem to be running automatically. I can manually run it after I start NPP, but obviously that defeats the purpose of a startup script!

Thank,
Rich

Alan Kilborn

@richlux said in Change History markers:

Is there something that needs to be done to get the startup (User) script to run

Maybe THIS?

richlux

@Alan-Kilborn said in Change History markers:

Maybe THIS?

That did it!

Thanks again,
Rich