<![CDATA[[ALPHA] Upcoming Plugin: HiddenLexers]]>

@mpheath said:

This is a markdown variant, AFAIK . Markdown has many variants so may seem like your problem is a variant that suits your needs. ASCIIDoc IIRC is a lexer that is not exposed in Notepad++ so perhaps wanted? This needs some more detail to know if the interest is desired.

In interesting timing, I am actually in the middle of creating a HiddenLexer plugin (based on my old PythonScript solution) which will allow the plugin to activate lexers that Notepad++ doesn’t expose in the Languages menu.

For alpha testing with ASCIIDoc:

  • Download zip of plugin DLL from here: <LINK REMOVED> (link should work for at least a few days) (see updated location, below) and put the DLL as c:\program files\notepad++\plugins\HiddenLexers\HiddenLexers.dll (or equivalent)
  • %AppData%\Notepad++\plugins\config\HiddenLexers\HiddenLexers.json
    {
  "extensions": {
    "adoc": "asciidoc"
  },
  "lexers": {
    "asciidoc": {
      "0  SCE_ASCIIDOC_DEFAULT":        { "fgColor": "", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "1  SCE_ASCIIDOC_STRONG1":        { "fgColor": "", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "1" },
      "2  SCE_ASCIIDOC_STRONG2":        { "fgColor": "", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "5" },
      "3  SCE_ASCIIDOC_EM1":            { "fgColor": "", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "2" },
      "4  SCE_ASCIIDOC_EM2":            { "fgColor": "", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "6" },
      "5  SCE_ASCIIDOC_HEADER1":        { "fgColor": "CC0000", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "1" },
      "6  SCE_ASCIIDOC_HEADER2":        { "fgColor": "CC3333", "bgColor": "4F4F4F", "fontStyle": "1" },
      "7  SCE_ASCIIDOC_HEADER3":        { "fgColor": "CC7777", "bgColor": "5F5F5F", "fontStyle": "1" },
      "8  SCE_ASCIIDOC_HEADER4":        { "fgColor": "CCbbbb", "bgColor": "6F6F6F", "fontStyle": "1" },
      "9  SCE_ASCIIDOC_HEADER5":        { "fgColor": "CCffff", "bgColor": "7F7F7F", "fontStyle": "1" },
      "10 SCE_ASCIIDOC_HEADER6":        { "fgColor": "FFFFFF", "bgColor": "8F8F8F", "fontStyle": "1" },
      "11 SCE_ASCIIDOC_ULIST_ITEM":     { "fgColor": "0000CC", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "12 SCE_ASCIIDOC_OLIST_ITEM":     { "fgColor": "0000CC", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "13 SCE_ASCIIDOC_BLOCKQUOTE":     { "fgColor": "00CC00", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "14 SCE_ASCIIDOC_LINK":           { "fgColor": "", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "4" },
      "15 SCE_ASCIIDOC_CODEBK":         { "fgColor": "00CC00", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "16 SCE_ASCIIDOC_PASSBK":         { "fgColor": "00CC00", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "17 SCE_ASCIIDOC_COMMENT":        { "fgColor": "00CC33", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "18 SCE_ASCIIDOC_COMMENTBK":      { "fgColor": "00CC33", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "19 SCE_ASCIIDOC_LITERAL":        { "fgColor": "CCCC00", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "20 SCE_ASCIIDOC_LITERALBK":      { "fgColor": "CCCC00", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "21 SCE_ASCIIDOC_ATTRIB":         { "fgColor": "CC00CC", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "22 SCE_ASCIIDOC_ATTRIBVAL":      { "fgColor": "CC00CC", "bgColor": "7F7F7F", "fontStyle": "0" },
      "23 SCE_ASCIIDOC_MACRO":          { "fgColor": "FFFF00", "bgColor": "", "fontStyle": "7" },
      "options": {},
      "keywords": [ "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "" ]
    }
  }
}
    (the colors are reasonable in DarkModeDefault theme)

The plugin isn’t ready for prime time yet, but for alpha testing, I was able to get that to automatically colorize the lexilla test asciidoc file AllStyles.adoc

There’s no documentation for the plugin yet, nor an ABOUT box, nor any way to force it to re-read the JSON (those are all TODO). But as a proof of concept…

9a9695a8-ab6a-4361-9c6c-6cb2ce36bab9-image.jpeg

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/27622/alpha-upcoming-plugin-hiddenlexersRSS for NodeWed, 05 Aug 2026 21:37:23 GMTTue, 04 Aug 2026 19:08:02 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to [ALPHA] Upcoming Plugin: HiddenLexers on Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:52:44 GMT]]>Updated artifacts: https://github.com/pryrt/NppPlugin-HiddenLexers/actions/runs/31041591210 (again, limited time availability, only for alpha testing)

  • Got rid of the “Hello” actions. ;-)
  • Added About box
  • Added Edit Config File to open the correct JSON file
  • Added Reread Config to reload the settings from the JSON
    • when you are editing the JSON in Notepad++, when you save that file, it should automatically reread the config. (you will have to activate the tab with the example file to see the update in highlighting)

This build should make it much easier for incremental changes to the JSON, without having to reload Notepad++ every time. :-)

Also, now I’ve updated the README at https://github.com/pryrt/NppPlugin-HiddenLexers

Call For Testers

It seems to be basically working at this point. If @mpheath and others could give it a test, that would be appreciated. I don’t personally need this plugin, as I don’t have any hidden lexers I want to activate, so I don’t know if I’ve missed anything critical or obvious. But from my tests with STATA (one of the languages that the original HiddenLexers.py handled) and ASCIIDoc (per the start of this conversation), I think it’s working reasonably.

I know that Lexilla has various config-variables for some of the lexers. If not having config variables available is a deal breaker for you, let me know which lexer you need it for, and give an example file and JSON to show me why that option is critical, and I can prioritize getting it added before I do the v1.0 release. Otherwise, the lexilla-options will probably not be included until a future version.

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106022https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106022Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:52:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [ALPHA] Upcoming Plugin: HiddenLexers on Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:04:40 GMT]]>NOTE: I split this out from the Using Notepad++ to Organize Game Guides and Documentation because it distracts from the original conversation, and is really about something separate from that discussion.

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106021https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106021Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:04:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [ALPHA] Upcoming Plugin: HiddenLexers on Wed, 05 Aug 2026 15:06:16 GMT]]>@PeterJones The mysql lexer has no real use with default style so was not seeing results though as developing the json some more then it started showing good progress. Perseverance wins in the end. Just need to get familiar with what’s required and I remembered that I am awful with styling colours.

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106014https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106014Wed, 05 Aug 2026 15:06:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [ALPHA] Upcoming Plugin: HiddenLexers on Wed, 05 Aug 2026 12:34:48 GMT]]>

@mpheath said:

I tried to add another lexer though failing to style for some unknown reason. When the plugin progresses from the Alpha state then may try again

Open an issue in my repo, with the config json and a test file showing it not working…

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106013https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106013Wed, 05 Aug 2026 12:34:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to [ALPHA] Upcoming Plugin: HiddenLexers on Wed, 05 Aug 2026 07:11:40 GMT]]>@PeterJones I have tried the HiddenLexer plugin and I am impressed. I tried to add another lexer though failing to style for some unknown reason. When the plugin progresses from the Alpha state then may try again. The “Hello Notepad++” works too though Notepad++ does not seem to respond back with a “Hello Plugin” :). The plugin has some good potential to access the other 1/3 of lexers that Lexilla provides. The plugin is looking good so far with the setup of AsciiDoc. I checked the history and the AsciiDoc lexer was added and released in December of 2021. This is probably the first time that I have seen AsciiDoc working as I have no previous experience with using the format.

]]>https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106012https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/post/106012Wed, 05 Aug 2026 07:11:40 GMT