It's time for UI update!

Tommie Hansen · Mar 15, 2017, 2:26 PM

One reason i still use NPP++ is because it is SUPER-LIGHTWEIGHT.
A problem with anything using Electron etc is that it is very resource hungry.

Just by not using Atom.io (my default editor otherwise) while on the run i literally get 2x the more battery life.

I really wished someone would fork npp++ and modernize it.

didsun · Mar 16, 2017, 11:53 AM

Hello, I use it more than 8 years and I really think that announces to UI update. I love it and will not replace NPP it for anything, but I would be very happy if there is an UI update.

rthx · Mar 18, 2017, 8:31 PM

My vote: No change to the UI, especially no UI like a Ribbon!

David Bailey · Mar 18, 2017, 8:27 PM

I hope that if there is a UI like a ribbon, it is user configurable, so people like me can configure it off!

Alan Kilborn · Mar 18, 2017, 8:31 PM

I don’t think there is anything to worry about, UI Ribbon or otherwise. Nothing’s changing anytime soon. That’s just a prediction, but it’s based upon history.

thunderbirdmoz · Mar 21, 2017, 4:51 AM

Please NO!!! Don’t change the UI. The thing I love about notepad++ is it is lightweight on system resources and diskspace. It is functional as it is. It does not need to be ‘modernized’. A lot of people still use the old XP interface because it works better. The look of notepad++ now might not match the default windows 10 ui but not everyone uses the same OS or has the ui set the same. notepad++ is a tool. It should not have things changed just because of a new fashion.

I don’t like the ribbon interface because it takes up more vertical space. Items in drop down menus are easy to find because they are in a list and your eyes only have to scroll down. If I want to access a function quicker, I can learn the shortcut or make a macro for it.

Please don’t change the colours or even the button icons unless there is some visual problem with them. Our familarity with the button icons and their button placement is what makes us able to use notepad++ quickly without having to waste time hunting stuff down or relearning things changed for no real reason.

Tommie Hansen · Mar 22, 2017, 2:04 PM

Few have mentioned the Ribbon Interface that is terrible and takes 10% of screen space etc. It’s more about making the UI modern and be able to follow the rest like Atom.io etc.

Devin McKeon · Mar 29, 2017, 7:55 PM

I support that the DEFAULT GUI should not change. Notepad++ is used often in education and so many educational tutorials are written with the current gui in mind. It would be very disruptive to change it.

However, that being said… myself and (I imagine) many others would love a ui/ux redesign at least as an option. Perhaps by making a ribbon like ui option that can be enabled and is scriptable. That should keep the base very lightweight, yet allow downloading of third party ribbons. This would enable and inspire creative experimentation in ux/ui, and allow the community to discover new alternatives that could one day become the new default (at which point the conventional ui would be available via an option).

Being scripted is the key. Adding to the plugin api for creating ribbon components, allows to distribute ribbon custimizations as plug-ins. Only part that needs to really be native is the base ribbon ui (ribbon, tabs, components), customization (drag and drop components from list), and component/tab creation api accessible in python. Or allow some hook for a custom ui, and even those base parts could be packaged as an extention perhaps using Qt, but as a separate download.

I think the key here is offering a way for the community to create advanced ui/ux and experiment, while keeping the base notepa++ download small and light, and the default notepad++ gui consistent/conventional.

TLDR:

optional new ribbon ui
default ribbon empty (to keep notepadd++ light)
ribbon is scriptable with python.

Tommie Hansen · Apr 1, 2017, 11:37 AM

So this discussion seems to be getting nowhere so actually did a more ‘real-world’ mockup:

Mockup, new NP++

Full size link: http://i.imgur.com/FqKopcM.jpg

Old, my custom style

Full size link: http://i.imgur.com/i0adi2H.jpg

Mustafa Serdar Sarıoğlu · Apr 7, 2017, 7:54 AM

Very Nice!
– Serdar

DaveyD · Apr 7, 2017, 7:56 PM

Plus 1 for the design…
Keeps the simplicity but makes it sleek!

Ethan Piliavin · Apr 7, 2017, 11:09 PM

@Tommie-Hansen your design is beautiful. Do you have a variant with a toolbar?

Its a shame that the NPP developers don’t prioritize aesthetics, your design is the most beautiful by far.

Joseph DeVore · Apr 8, 2017, 10:22 AM

OOh PLEASE NO, the UI is PERFECT the way it is ;^_^;
I CANNOT STAND the Metro UI style of Windows 8+… :p

TRUE, if it ain’t broke don’t fix!

Changing the UI to Attracting new users :Rolls-Eyes: is dumb…
so its attract new at the expense of ALL those that already use NP++, that’s just sad

NP++ is G.R.E.A.T. because its NP++ and not necessarily like other programs
for example the program, CCleaner updated their UI to be more Metro like and it S.U.C.K.S. its got so much white space now its hard to look at and see the difference between different data areas and stuff… ie from v4=great to v5=WHITE-SPACE-HELL.

so for all those clambering for a NEW UI, PLEASE GO FIND ANOTHER PROGRAM TO USE that meet your needs!

Tommie Hansen · Apr 11, 2017, 2:50 PM

@Ethan-Piliavin said:

@Tommie-Hansen your design is beautiful. Do you have a variant with a toolbar?

Its a shame that the NPP developers don’t prioritize aesthetics, your design is the most beautiful by far.

Thank you,

It isn’t my design per se but rather a mashup of NPP, Spotify and the Atom.io editor. The window chrome is Spotify, the editor parts Atom.io and the menus/status-bar etc NPP.

But no, no sample with a toolbar. The toolbar would need a bit more tinkering but there are lots of UI icons out there that would probably fit so anyone actually fixing the current UI could just implement any of the already made libraries that exist. The mashup is basically how i would use it, but of course a darker UI variant should support all the things that come with the default install.

Tommie Hansen · Apr 11, 2017, 3:04 PM

@Joseph-DeVore said:

OOh PLEASE NO, the UI is PERFECT the way it is ;^_^;
I CANNOT STAND the Metro UI style of Windows 8+… :p

TRUE, if it ain’t broke don’t fix!

Changing the UI to Attracting new users :Rolls-Eyes: is dumb…

There’s no “Metro UI”; the mockup is a mashup of Spotify, Atom.io and NPP. None of these conform to what is commonly known as “Metro UI”.
A darker UI doesn’t mean that a brighter one cannot exist and be the default so that people that want to keep the “Windows 95”-style for whatever reason can do that. Just like it works now but with the addition to change the window chrome itself and having a default bright/dark theme.
I’ve used NPP since forever, no one has said anything about attracting new users. It’s about conforming to best practices within visual design; one simple photographic rule we can apply is that the brightest point within a frame (say an editor) automatically becomes the focal point. Thus having super-brights in less important areas isn’t such a great thing to say the least.
“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” … ? Again – no one has said anything about forcing anyone to use a darker and more modern UI. It isn’t like you’re forced to install newer versions either if an option to use a darker UI would be too painful for you.

Arno Welzel · Apr 28, 2017, 4:38 PM

The general UI is mostly a matter of taste - but there are other details which really don’t work well:

Dialog windows don’t even follow plain standards - regardless which Windows version you use. For example:

the “Find” window uses some kind of “toolbox” window decoration but also some weird “is sizeable” attribute even though you can’t resize the window anyway.
many dialog windows don’t show a border in Windows 10: for example Preferences and Style Configuratior
dialog style is not consistent in Windows 10: “Find” and “Preferences” use a white background while the shortcut mapper has a grey background with some custom style grey tabs which become white when active

At least Notepad++ should use a consistent GUI:

use standard Windows controls whenever possible
use regular Window style for dialog window title bars and borders and not “toolbox” style
use one style for all dialogs and not “Win32 default window background” and “Win32 dialog background” mixed

Andrés Zsögön · Apr 28, 2017, 8:57 PM

Is someone seriously suggesting the Metro UI for a software with a layout from a typical Windows 95 OSR2 program??

Just open the Find dialog and you’ll see that it’s crowded with useless options that should not even be there to begin with. I’m not asking for a fancy Find toolbar, like any software from this century already has, just to use a more reasonable layout.

Settings such as the Window transparency (?) are still present in the Find dialog, in the Year of Our Lord 2017… and you expect the Metro GUI or Visual Studio 2015 themes on this program? Please don’t.

First things first… put someone to work on reorganizing the layout with standards from this decade, and then discuss trivial stuff such as tab colors or monochrome icons (soon to be discarded by Microsoft anyway).

giri kotte · May 19, 2017, 1:57 PM

It’s beyond the point now, I suppose. Atom and VS rule among the open sourced modern editors. VS is pretty fast. And if one’s comfortable with an occasional nag screen, Sublime is superior in every sense.
NP++ is the first thing that I install after a Windows installation and has been so for more than a decade. It had been a lifesaver for my Postgrad project but NP++ missed the bus when it comes to keeping up with the times, in GUI and cross-platform compatibility terms .
That said, even Vim and Emacs are unstoppable dinosaurs with thriving user communities. But I suspect most of their users tend to be tech savvy people working on Unix-like OSs.

Ethan Piliavin · May 19, 2017, 3:34 PM

@Tommie-Hansen what you have as “Old My Custom Style” is that something you already have setup for color scheme in NPP? Can you share this configuration?

Tommie Hansen · May 29, 2017, 8:33 PM

@giri-kotte said:

It’s beyond the point now, I suppose. Atom and VS rule among the open sourced modern editors. VS is pretty fast. And if one’s comfortable with an occasional nag screen, Sublime is superior in every sense.
NP++ is the first thing that I install after a Windows installation and has been so for more than a decade. It had been a lifesaver for my Postgrad project but NP++ missed the bus when it comes to keeping up with the times, in GUI and cross-platform compatibility terms .
That said, even Vim and Emacs are unstoppable dinosaurs with thriving user communities. But I suspect most of their users tend to be tech savvy people working on Unix-like OSs.

It’s sad though since NP++ pretty much smoke all these whenit comes to performance. There’s a reason both you and I install NP++ even though it might not be our daily driver for 'real’work nowadays. I just wished it actually was my daily driver since I hate wasting resources. Any machine should be able to launch a code editor and run it well. NP++ can be ran on anything with good performance, the others? Not so much.