• Regarding the Lua language, the first line is :
  I hope that it still works with this layout. Personally, I would expect this syntax :
  …
• For the two languages mssql and sql, the commentLine attribute is moved at end of current line, after the commentStart and commentEnd attributes

Order of attributes is irrelevant to XML (even when parsed by the outdated tinyxml library used in N++)

• The embedded Javascript and SearchResult languages do not have any extension ! I suppose that it’s on purpose ?

Since embedded Javascript is only for JavaScript embedded in HTML and similar files, it makes sense to not populate the ext attribute. And SearchResult even more so.

• More generally, for a specific attribute, is the attribute="" syntax identical to the total absence of this attribute ?

As far as I know or can determine.

• Regarding the backspaceUnindent attribute, it doesn’t seem used, by default, even for the two languages python and yaml which use the four space indentation

Don didn’t bother updating the XML to include the default value for all languages, because the code already assumes the default value.

That attribute will only show up on languages that you change the state of that option – or perhaps on languages where you change any of the langs.xml-related options in the GUI (I haven’t tested that).

Thus, the no status, for the powershell language seems useless, too !

If you toggle it on and then back off (there might have to be an exit/reload between; again, I haven’t tested specifically), it will first populate the attribute with the yes when you toggle it on (and then save settings), then it will populate with no when you toggle it back off (and then save settings).

Once Notepad++ has started tracking a given attribute in its XML settings, it will always write that value when it writes the associated XML on exit; the attribute-is-missing case is just to simplify handling installations that are being upgraded (so a person doesn’t have to re-create their langs.xml in order to be able to toggle that option), and Don made use of this to save the effort of adding that attribute to every language in the model XML file.

… however, looking at the langs.model.xml file, for the powershell language, I just see :
…
So, this may be a mistake on my part, although I don’t use the powershell language, yet !

Right now, the most recent commit for langs.model.xml is here, and it shows that powershell does not include that attribute. Which means for the no value to have shown up in your XML, you either toggled that option or you made some other change for powershell (knowingly or unknowingly).

Thanks you so much, Peter for the update of the documentation regarding my questions !

Here is a summary of all the languages used in the default Langs.xml file of the last portable release v8.7.5

Notes :

• In the first line, I wrote the exact names of the attributes

• Each time that the attribute="" syntax is used, for a specific language, I wrote EMPTY in the corresponding attribute column

• Each time that an attribute is totally absent, for a specific language, I left the corresponding attribute column blank

|     name     |                                 ext                                 | commentLine | commentStart | commentEnd | tabSettings | backspaceUnindent |
•--------------•---------------------------------------------------------------------•-------------•--------------•------------•-------------•-------------------•
| normal       | txt                                                                 |             |              |            |             |
| actionscript | as mx                                                               |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| ada          | ada ads adb                                                         |    --       |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| asm          | asm                                                                 |    ;        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| asn1         | mib                                                                 |    EMPTY    |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| asp          | asp aspx                                                            |    '   |              |            |             |
| autoit       | au3                                                                 |    ;        |    #CS       |    #CE     |             |
| avs          | avs avsi                                                            |    #        |    /*        |    */      |             |
| baanc        | bc cln                                                              |    |        |              |            |             |
| bash         | bash sh bsh csh bash_profile bashrc profile                         |    #        |              |            |             |
| batch        | bat cmd nt                                                          |    REM      |              |            |             |
| blitzbasic   | bb                                                                  |    EMPTY    |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| c            | c lex                                                               |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| caml         | ml mli sml thy                                                      |    EMPTY    |    (*        |    *)      |             |
| cmake        | cmake                                                               |    #        |              |            |             |
| cobol        | cbl cbd cdb cdc cob cpy copy lst                                    |    *>    |              |            |             |
| csound       | orc sco csd                                                         |    ;        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| coffeescript | coffee litcoffee                                                    |    #        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| cpp          | cpp cxx cc h hh hpp hxx ino                                         |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| cs           | cs                                                                  |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| css          | css                                                                 |             |    /*        |    */      |             |
| d            | d                                                                   |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| diff         | diff patch                                                          |             |              |            |             |
| erlang       | erl hrl                                                             |    %        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| escript      | src em                                                              |    EMPTY    |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| forth        | forth                                                               |    \        |    (         |    )       |             |
| fortran      | f for f90 f95 f2k f23                                               |    !        |              |            |             |
| fortran77    | f77                                                                 |    C        |              |            |             |
| freebasic    | bas bi                                                              |    EMPTY    |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| go           | go                                                                  |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| gui4cli      | gui                                                                 |    //       |              |            |             |
| haskell      | hs lhs las                                                          |    --       |              |            |             |
| hollywood    | hws                                                                 |    ;        |    /*        |    */      |             |
| html         | html htm shtml shtm xhtml xht hta                                   |    EMPTY    |    <!--   |    -->  |             |
| ini          | ini inf url wer                                                     |    ;        |              |            |             |
| inno         | iss                                                                 |    ;        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| ihex         | hex                                                                 |             |              |            |             |
| java         | java                                                                |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| javascript   | EMPTY                                                               |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| javascript.js| js jsm jsx mjs                                                      |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| json         | json                                                                |    EMPTY    |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| json5        | json5 jsonc                                                         |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| jsp          | jsp                                                                 |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| kix          | kix                                                                 |    ;        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| lisp         | lsp lisp                                                            |    ;        |              |            |             |
| latex        | tex sty                                                             |    %        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| lua          | lua                                                                 |    --       |              |            |             |
| makefile     | mak mk                                                              |    #        |              |            |             |
| matlab       | m                                                                   |    %        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| mssql        | tsql                                                                |    --       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| mmixal       | mms                                                                 |    %        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| nim          | nim                                                                 |    #        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| nncrontab    | tab spf                                                             |    \        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| nfo          | nfo                                                                 |             |              |            |             |
| nsis         | nsi nsh                                                             |    ;        |    /*        |    */      |             |
| oscript      | osx                                                                 |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| objc         | mm                                                                  |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| pascal       | pas pp p inc lpr                                                    |             |    {         |    }       |             |
| perl         | pl pm plx t                                                         |    #        |              |            |             |
| php          | php php3 php4 php5 phps phpt phtml                                  |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| postscript   | ps                                                                  |    %        |              |            |             |
| powershell   | ps1 psm1 psd1                                                       |    #        |    <#     |    #>   |      -1     |        no         |
| props        | properties conf cfg gitattributes gitconfig gitmodules editorconfig |    #        |              |            |             |
| purebasic    | pb                                                                  |    EMPTY    |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| python       | py pyw pyx pxd pxi                                                  |    #        |              |            |     132     |
| gdscript     | gd                                                                  |    #        |              |            |             |
| r            | r s splus                                                           |    #        |              |            |             |
| raku         | raku rakumod rakudoc rakutest p6 pm6 pod6 t6                        |    #        |    `{        |    }       |             |
| rebol        | r2 r3 reb                                                           |    ;        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| registry     | reg                                                                 |    ;;       |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| rc           | rc                                                                  |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| ruby         | rb rbw                                                              |    #        |              |            |             |
| rust         | rs                                                                  |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| scheme       | scm smd ss                                                          |    ;        |              |            |             |
| smalltalk    | st                                                                  |             |    '"'  |    '"'|             |
| spice        | scp out                                                             |    *        |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| sql          | sql                                                                 |    --       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| srec         | mot srec                                                            |             |              |            |             |
| swift        | swift                                                               |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| tcl          | tcl                                                                 |    #        |              |            |             |
| tehex        | tek                                                                 |             |              |            |             |
| tex          | tex                                                                 |    %        |              |            |             |
| toml         | toml                                                                |    #        |              |            |             |
| vb           | vb vba vbs                                                          |    '   |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| txt2tags     | t2t                                                                 |    EMPTY    |    EMPTY     |    EMPTY   |             |
| typescript   | ts tsx                                                              |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| verilog      | v sv vh svh                                                         |    //       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| vhdl         | vhd vhdl                                                            |    --       |    /*        |    */      |             |
| visualprolog | pro cl i pack ph                                                    |    %        |    /*        |    */      |             |
| xml          | xml xaml xsl xslt xsd xul kml svg mxml xsml wsdl xlf xliff xbl sxbl |    EMPTY    |    <!--   |    -->  |             |
| xml          | sitemap gml gpx plist vcproj vcxproj csproj csxproj vbproj dbproj   |    EMPTY    |    <!--   |    -->  |             |
| yaml         | yml yaml                                                            |    #        |              |            |     132     |
| searchResult | EMPTY                                                               |             |              |            |             |

Some observations or weird things about the Langs.xml file :

• Regarding the Lua language, the first line is :

<Language commentLine="--" ext="lua" name="lua"> 

I hope that it still works with this layout. Personally, I would expect this syntax :

<Language name ="lua" ext="lua" commentLine="--">

• For the two languages mssql and sql, the commentLine attribute is moved at end of current line, after the commentStart and commentEnd attributes

I suppose that it doesn’t matter, but to be coherent with the other languages, we could use, instead :

<Language name="mssql" ext="tsql" commentLine="--" commentStart="/*" commentEnd="*/">

And :

<Language name="sql" ext="sql" commentLine="--" commentStart="/*" commentEnd="*/">

• The embedded Javascript and SearchResult languages do not have any extension ! I suppose that it’s on purpose ?

• More generally, for a specific attribute, is the attribute="" syntax identical to the total absence of this attribute ?

• As you said, in the documentation :

If this <Language...> entry is missing the tabSettings attribute, it will behave as if it had tabSettings="-1". Thus, I suppose that it could be omitted, for the powershell language

• Regarding the backspaceUnindent attribute, it doesn’t seem used, by default, even for the two languages python and yaml which use the four space indentation

Thus, the no status, for the powershell language seems useless, too !

Oh… ,however, looking at the langs.model.xml file, for the powershell language, I just see :

<Language name="powershell" ext="ps1 psm1 psd1" commentLine="#" commentStart="&lt;#" commentEnd="#&gt;">

So, this may be a mistake on my part, although I don’t use the powershell language, yet !

Thanks in advance for your head-ups !

Best Regards,

guy038

Good catch. The backspaceUnindent attribute was added in v8.6.9, but I didn’t think to add a description of the attribute to the details section.

And the small space in the table meant that the “details” on tabSettings="..." was pretty scant. I will add more details below the table in the manual.

I am updating that table in the manual to be more like the following:

Position	Name	Value format	Meaning
1	name	string	The name of the language.
2	ext	string	The list of file extensions associated to this language by default. Lists are space separated, without leading periods.
3	commentLine	string	The character(s) that prelude a comment extending to the end of the physical line when using the Edit > Comment/Uncomment > Single line actions. Set to “” if single-line comments are not supported for the current Language.
4	commentStart	string	The character(s) that start a block comment when using the Edit > Comment/Uncomment > Block Comment/Uncomment actions. Set to “” if block comments are not supported for the current Language.
5	commentEnd	string	The character(s) that end a block comment when using the Edit > Comment/Uncomment > Block Comment/Uncomment actions. Set to “” if block comments are not supported for the current Language.
6	exclude	"yes"/"no"	Set to "yes" to hide this Language from the Language menu; otherwise, set to "no" or don’t include this attribute. Reflects the Settings > Preferences > Language having the Language in the Disabled list ("yes") vs Available list ("no").
7	tabSettings	integer	If present, the attribute value encodes the number of spaces a tab is equivalent to, reflecting Settings > Preferences > Indentation > Indent Settings for the active language. (More on this attribute, below)
8	backspaceUnindent	"yes"/"no"	If present, reflects the state of the Settings > Preferences > Indentation > Indent Settings > ☐ Backspace key unindents... checkbox. (New to v8.6.9)

The value used in the tabSettings attribute value depends on the Settings > Preferences > Indentation > Indent Settings:

• If it is set to use ☑ Tab character, then the value stored in this XML attribute is the same as in the preference’s Indent Size value.
• If it is set to use ☑ Space character(s), then the value stored in this XML attribute is 128 higher than the preference’s Indent Size value (so a value of 4 in the preference dialog would be stored here as tabSettings="132").
• If it is set to use ☑ Use Default Value, then this attribute will be tabSettings="-1".
• If this <Language...> entry is missing the tabSettings attribute, it will behave as if it had tabSettings="-1".