Notepad++ release 8.9

donho

Notepad++ release 8.9 is available:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/v89-released/

Notepad++ v8.9 new security enhancement, features, regression fixes & bug-fixes:

Remove Notepad++ self-singed certificate signature, use only the certificate issued by GlobalSign. (Fix #16806)
Security enhancement: Log security errors automatically in “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Notepad++\log\securityError.log” (Implement #17305, #WinGUp)
Fix jarring color regression in dark mode (introduced in v8.8.9). (Fix #17289)
Fix “/noUpdater” installer option not working if updater was previously installed. (Fix #17287)
Fix column mode edit undo regression (introduced in v8.8.9). (Fix #17295, #17272, #16784)
Fix issue where an empty file opened without encoding under a UTF-8 system codepage. (Fix #17258)
Add makefile function list parser. (Fix #17293)
Improve performance & add missing file ext. from langs.model.xml to langs.xml.(Fix #17290, implement #17314, implement #17306)
Improve “Open containing folder in Explorer” command to avoid creating Explorer process. (Fix #17060)
Allow updating mouse scroll amount according to OS settings changes. (Implement #17300)

Auto-update will be triggered for this release in 1 week, if no critical issues found.

D Lix

JavaScript highlighting does not work in dark themes and there are 2 entries named “JavaScript” in the Style Configurator’s language list.

PeterJones

@D-Lix said in Notepad++ release 8.9:

JavaScript highlighting does not work in dark themes and there are 2 entries named “JavaScript” in the Style Configurator’s language list.

Yes it does.

What theme(s) are you using? What version of Notepad++ did you upgrade from? What version of Notepad++ did you originally install years ago?

There are intentionally two copies of Javascript: in the Style Configurator, one should be called JavaScript and the other should be called JavaScript (embedded):

The first is for JavaScript files (*.js). The second (with “(embedded)” in the name) is for JS embedded in HTML. Those were made separate in 2015 with v7.2.2. So for a decade now, it’s had two entries…

For you to have never seen that before your upgrade to v8.9 is mind-boggling. For you to still have a theme that only had one entry called “JavaScript” would mean that one of your themes was on the order of 10 years old… which shows why the feature of the automatic update of themes is so important – because if you’ve really only had one entry all these years, then either your *.js weren’t highlighting or any javascript embedded in HTML wasn’t highlighting. Now both can and will.

If both entries in Style Configurator claim JavaScript without one being JavaScript (embedded), then:
1. Close all copies of Notepad++
2. Run one copy of Notepad++ and open %AppData%\Notepad++\langs.xml and %AppData%\Notepad++\stylers.xml (or %AppData%\Notepad++\themees\<ThemeName>.xml if you are using a “dark theme”)
3. In langs.xml, there should be two copies, one called name="javascript" for the embedded JavaScript and one called name="javascript.js" for the *.js JavaScript files:
  
  yours might not be right next to each other like in my screenshot; order doesn’t matter; just confirm they both exist
- javascript.js should have some values in the ext="..." attribue; the other should not
- You probably won’t have to do anything with that one, I just wanted you to confirm it existed and looked reasonable.
1. In stylers.xml or themes\<ThemeName>.xml, you should also find two entries
  - The name="javascript" should have desc="JavaScript (embedded)" and the WordsStyle entries should have styleID values above 40
  - The name="javascript.js" should have desc="JavaScript", and the WordsStyle entires should have styleID values between 1 and 20 (except the USER KEYWORDS, which will have 128-135
  - If both of your name entries have just desc="JavaScript", then change the one that has name="javascript" and StyleID’s above 40 to have desc="JavaScript (embedded)"
2. Save any changes you made. Exit Notepad++. Restart. It should now have JavaScript vs JavaScript (embedded) in the Style Configurator Languages choices
If you don’t like the colors that were chosen when the second javascript was populated (it will have populated with the default foreground/background for your theme), then you can edit the colors to your liking… or you can compare your copy of the theme XML file to the official version, and copy over the colors from the official version of the theme (as described in the in the Update Theme(s) in User Config Directory section of the v8.8.9 Themes FAQ)

D Lix

@PeterJones
I use 32-bit Notepad++ Portable version 8.9
The theme where JavaScript entry is duplicated in the Style Configurator’s “Language” list is DuoTone Dark Sea, which is too old and no longer standard compliant, for all the other standard themes there are 2 entries JavaScript and Javscript (embedded). Javascript highlighting does not work even for those standard dark themes.

PeterJones

@D-Lix said in Notepad++ release 8.9:

@PeterJones
I use 32-bit Notepad++ Portable version 8.9
The theme where JavaScript entry is duplicated in the Style Configurator’s “Language” list is DuoTone Dark Sea, which is too old and no longer standard compliant,

Since it doesn’t come with Notepad++, it doesn’t surprise me if it’s out-of-date. When I searched for it, I found this Topic and the website it links to. For whatever reason, the author of that family of themes chose to start from an outdated theme for generating their family of themes, because despite the fact that the separate JS languages have existed since 2015, they didn’t have it when they announced it in 2019, and even the latest 2020 release didn’t use separate ones

for all the other standard themes there are 2 entries JavaScript and Javscript (embedded). Javascript highlighting does not work even for those standard dark themes.

Yes it does. I showed you a screenshot of Dark Mode Default, with obvious highlighting of JS in both *.js file and *.html file.

… But, as I said in my previous post, if a theme was missing a language and was upgraded by v8.9, then it used the default foreground and background color for every style in that new language, but you as the user can change the color for each style in that theme to whatever you think looks good. There is no way for an automated procedure to “guess” a good color that will make every user of a theme happy when filling in a missing style, so using the default color and letting the user change it if they want highlighting is the best choice. In terms of the fact that older Notepad++ versions, with outdated themes, wouldn’t syntax highlight those files, and wouldn’t let you change the colors with Style Configurator, the fact that in v8.9 you now can change those colors with Style Configurator is a drastic improvement – and exactly the improvement that was intended with the v8.9 release.

Looking in detail, Dark Mode Default and Solarized and Zenburn all have full colorization for JavaScript *.js files. Many of the others have Bold for keywords, though the foreground and background colors are default; and a few have just default foreground and background colors. But all of them allow you to change the color using Style Configurator, if you want it.

The historical problem is that the users who originally created any given Theme mostly stopped contributing updates to their themes a decade or more ago. As new languages are added to Notepad++, most themes didn’t get them at all (until v8.9), so people using those outdated themes couldn’t use Style Configurator to change their colors, and got no syntax highlighting for those new languages. Now, in v8.9, they are all available in the Style Configurator, no matter what theme they started from… but a user who wants to use one of those themes will have to set their own colors. So it went from being default foreground/background with it being impossible to change that for a given theme without digging into XML, to being default foreground/background colors but being really easy to change it using the Style Configurator – so a drastic improvement.

D Lix

@PeterJones
Just one more question, why Global override is now missing in the style list when Global Styles is selected in Language list in case of all the standard themes but Global override is still there for my DuoTone Dark Sea theme?

PeterJones

@D-Lix said in Notepad++ release 8.9:

@PeterJones
Just one more question, why Global override is now missing in the style list when Global Styles is selected in Language list in case of all the standard themes but Global override is still there for my DuoTone Dark Sea theme?

It’s not missing in any of them. It’s just been moved to the end of the list, not the beginning, since there’s very little reason to ever use Global Override, and by putting it at the beginning, people were accidentally encouraged to use the Global Override when they should have been changing the Default color instead. (That change of order was made in all distributed themes in v8.7.1.)

D Lix

@PeterJones
I should have noticed it myself. Thank you.