Preferences Dialog > Auto-Insert Section doesn't seem to save some Matched pairs - new enhancement proposal for a tab layout

wonkawilly

Preferences Dialog > Auto-Insert Section doesn’t seem to save some Matched pairs - new enhancement proposal for a tab layout

1 The dialog

Description of the Issue

I have tried multiple times to customize the above dialog inserting new symbols I need to automatically wrap text into as for example the following:

“Text”
`Text`
‘Text’
«Text»

but they don’t stay in place after restarting Npp.

Steps to Reproduce the Issue

Open Preferences > Auto-Complete > Auto-Insert
Check the check-boxes and also insert custom symbols pairs than close the Preferences dialog

2 the inserted chars

Restart Npp and reopen the Preference dialog
The custom pairs are lost, at least some of them or even all

Expected Behavior

<!— What did you expect to happen -->
The dialog must keep the pairs of chars set by the user after Npp is restarted.

Actual Behavior

<!— What actually happened -->
Some custom char pairs are lost restarting Npp and the following screenshot shows the result after restarting Npp.

3 After Npp restarted some are emptied

Overtime I did more or less the same in all Npp versions and the result is about the same every time so it seems that this part of the Preferences dialog never worked as it is supposed to.

Also more symbol pairs are needed sometimes

Also it would be great to have the possibility to insert more custom pairs. For example:

##	OPEN	CLOSE	DESCRIPTION AND EXAMPLE
1	(	)	(Round parentheses)
2	[	]	[Square brackets]
3	{	}	{Curly brackets}
4	<	>	<Single angular brackets or lower than/>
5	«	»	«Double angular brackets»
6	"	"	“Vertical Double Quotes”
7	’	’	‘Vertical Apostrofe’
8	‘	’	‘Reciprocally inclined Apostrofe’
9	“	”	“Reciprocally inclined Double Quotes”
10	`	`	`Back ticks` \|
11	\	\	\Double back slash\
12	/	/	/Regular Expressions/
13	/*	*/	/Javascript Comment Block/
14	<!–	–>	<!–HTML Comment Block -->
15	#	#	#Other type of Comments Block#
🆕	New	New	New record

This is not a complete list of possibilities: maybe other programming languages or situations need further symbols.

So IMHO would be better to change approach of such section of the dialog and implement a table-like control instead of checkboxes and textboxes layout because this is already inconsistent in itself.

The table would be composed as shown before by:

Into the first column contains just a counter/auto-number
Into the second can be typed the opening symbol of the pair
Into the third can be typed the closing symbol of the pair
Into the fourth can be typed the extended description and Npp will take care of automatically wrap the typed description into the inserted symbols in 2nd and 3rd columns to show an example

Also a check algorithm must run before saving the new record to check if into the table is already present the same symbols pair and in that case will the user will be notified so Npp will prevent to save the insertion of duplicate records.

IMHO the following is a graphical example of the possible new table layout implementation resulting from the above proposal for the Auto-insert section of the dialog that should replace the current “check boxes + single char textboxes pair” implementation, inconsistent, very limited in number of items and also not good working,

The table instead will have the possibility to be populated by the user of an unlimited number of custom pair items that will be saved into an *.ini or *.xml file so the the set can be easily passed through Npp updates or even shared from a computer to another or online.

Paired autocomplet items list New Proposal example

At the right hand of the table there are two buttons:

Saves the new record (after checking for previous duplicates)
Deletes the selected record (after user confirmation).

Also notice that their button labels are based on icons (or on Unicode chars) so no multi language translation will be ever needed once implemented.

Debug Information

Notepad++ v8.5.3 (32-bit)
Build time : May 15 2023 - 06:07:16
Path : C:\Users\Montaggio Video\Desktop\npp.8.5.3.portable\notepad++.exe
Command Line :
Admin mode : OFF
Local Conf mode : ON
Cloud Config : OFF
OS Name : Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit)
OS Build : 7601.0
Current ANSI codepage : 1252

Plugins :

AnalysePlugin (1.13.49)

AutoSave (2)

BetterMultiSelection (1.5)

BracketsCheck (1.2.2)

CodeAlignmentNpp (14.1.107)

ColorPicker (2.3)

ColumnTools (1.4.5.1)

ComparePlugin (2.0.2)

ComparePlus (1.1)

CSScriptNpp (2.0.3)

CSVLint (0.4.6.4)

CsvQuery (1.2.9)

DSpellCheck (1.5)

ElasticTabstops (1.5)

EmmetNPP (1.0.2)

Explorer (1.9.9)

ExtSettings (1.3.1)

FWDataViz (2.6.2)

HexEditor (0.9.12)

HTMLTag_unicode (1.3.7)

ImgTag (2.0.1)

JSLintNpp (0.8.3.119)

JsMapParser.NppPlugin (4.2)

JSMinNPP (1.2205)

JsonTools (4.14)

Linter (0.1)

LocationNavigate (0.4.8.1)

LuaScript (0.12)

MarkdownViewerPlusPlus (0.8.2)

Merge files in one (1.2)

mimeTools (2.9)

MultiClipboard (2.1)

NavigateTo (2.4.1)

NewFileBrowser (0.1.3)

NppAutoIndent (1.2)

NppCalc (1.5)

NppConverter (4.5)

NppDocShare (0.1)

NppEventExec (0.9)

NppExec (0.8.2)

NppExport (0.4)

NppFavorites (1.0.0.1)

NppFTP (0.29.12)

NPPJSONViewer (2.0.5)

NppJumpList (1.2.2)

NppMarkdownPanel (0.7.3)

NppMenuSearch (0.9.6)

NppRegExTractorPlugin (2.1)

NppScripts (2)

NppSnippets (1.7.1)

NppTaskList (2.5)

NppTextFX (1.4.1)

NppTextViz (0.4.2)

NppToolBucket (1.10.6622.41336)

NppXmlTreeviewPlugin (2)

OpenSelection (1.1.3)

PyNPP (1.2)

Python Indent (1.0.0.4)

PythonScript (2)

qkNppReverseLines (1)

QuickText (0.2.5.1)

RegexTrainer (1)

Remove Duplicate Lines (1.3)

RunMe (1.6.1)

SelectQuotedText (1.1)

SessionMgr (1.4.4)

SourceCookifier (0.7.3)

SurroundSelection (1.4.1)

Tidy2 (0.2)

TopMost (1.4.2)

urlPlugin (1.2)

WebEdit (2.1)

WindowManager (1.2.2)

XBrackets (1.3.1)

XMLTools (3.1.1.13)

ZenCoding-Python (0.7.0.1)

_CustomizeToolbar (5.3)

PS:

I also tried to post the above issue in https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/new but I am getting the following error:

You can’t perform that action at this time.
Can some one solve it?
Thank you in advance

Mark Olson

@wonkawilly
Thank you for taking all the time to format your issue according to the instructions. I’m sure that will help anyone who wants to help you with your problem.

I would try again posting the issue in the GitHub repo. Don Ho and the other core developers don’t spend a lot of time in this forum and you’ll have much better luck if you can get it posted there.

wonkawilly

@Mark-Olson

Thank you Mark for your words,

Following your kind suggestion I just (where I live its time 02:25 AM) tried again on GitHub:
I went to
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues
clicked on Green Button New Issue,
copy and pasted there everything and clicked on the Green Button to submit the issue.
Unfortunately I am afraid the error “You can’t perform that action at this time.” showed again.
I am very sorry :'( if this is the wrong place for exposing issues. But it seems I don’t have another choice at the moment.

Alan Kilborn

@wonkawilly

Weren’t you banned from the N++ project on github?

wonkawilly

@Alan-Kilborn

Yes, I was and I suppose I still am. That happened because a while ago I posted a very long and elaborated proposal of mine aimed to improve Npp Search and Replace dialog (it still is online) and I spread the word posting some invitations to other users to read that post because I reputed it interesting even for others not only for me.

Than other users told me that I was mistaken doing so (about those invitations I posted) consequntially the day after or so (I don’t remember exacly), I deleted all posts I made in such an occasion because I didn’t want to be punished just for a venial sin, but I was banned anyway. Patience, it happens.

I am still young and I was (and still am) very thrilled to be free in speeching (writing actually) and spreading ideas to improve Npp itself, wich is in principle a great shared projet by an international and varigated Comunity that overcomes local differencis to collaborate on a comon and noble objective.

Of course my behavior didn’t mean any offence for anybody, but you know, I live in a Nation where there is freedom of speech, writing and so on as well as freedom of sharing and spreading ideas among others especially if aimed at the common good, and at that time I didn’t know yet that on Github (or maybe just in that project?) there was not such kind of freedom of posting for spreading ideas: so I didn’t see it coming especially from Npp Project space.

In fact if I am not mistaken even Npp defended freedom and indipendence and other noble right in multiple occasions and because of that I felt free of sharing and spreading my ideas too, for improving Npp, as the example given by themselves in multiple occasions as for example.

Notepad++ 8.4 (Stand up for Ukraine)
Notepad++ 8.3.3 (Make Apps, not war)
Notepad++ 8.3.2 (Declare variables, not war)
Notepad++ 8.3.1 (Boycott Beijing 2022)
Notepad++ 8.3 (Boycott Beijing 2022)
Notepad++ 7.9.2: (Stand with Hong Kong)
Notepad++ 7.9.1: (pour Samuel Paty)
Notepad++ 7.9: (Stand with Hong Kong)
Notepad++ 7.8.9: Stand with Hong Kong
Notepad++ 7.8.3: (Free Uyghur)
Notepad++ 7.8.2: (Free Uyghur)
Notepad++ 7.8.1: (Free Uyghur)
Notepad++ 7.6.2 (Gilet Jaune Edition)
Notepad++ 6.7.4 (Je suis Charlie edition)
Notepad++ 6.6.4 (Tiananmen June Fourth Incident Edition)

And I suppose even in other occasions and also I believe those initiatives really respectable.

Of course you can immagine I was in good faith and I did not mean doing nothing offensive for anybody.

I only hope I will not be banned for life just for that venial sin, but I can’t say for sure: after all every one has the right to admin its own online space at the best of own possibilities. And this too is a right and an act of freedom after all. So no hard feelings for that misadventure: as I sad some times it happens.