NP++ on Linux?

Kevin Havens · Jan 10, 2016, 12:24 PM

It appears that the “upstream” developers have no interest in developing NP++ on Linux… so I am gonna do it.

I have a Launchpad PPA (so it’s gonna be only for Ubuntu now)… and I’m working on it as I write this.

Install instructions soon. Maybe in a day or two.

dail · Jan 11, 2016, 1:43 PM

It appears that the “upstream” developers have no interest in developing NP++ on Linux… so I am gonna do it.

I have a Launchpad PPA (so it’s gonna be only for Ubuntu now)… and I’m working on it as I write this.

Install instructions soon. Maybe in a day or two.

Have you seen this commit?

Makrand Sanap · Jun 5, 2016, 6:15 PM

Anyone tried this?

http://notepadqq.altervista.org/wp/

oren A · Oct 18, 2016, 10:06 AM

@Makrand-Sanap said:

Anyone tried this?

http://notepadqq.altervista.org/wp/

I tried this one, but it is not as functional as notepad++, for sure it is not a full port (I do not even understand why they use the same name… )

ensiform · Oct 23, 2016, 3:38 AM

@dail said:

@Kevin-Havens said:

It appears that the “upstream” developers have no interest in developing NP++ on Linux… so I am gonna do it.

I have a Launchpad PPA (so it’s gonna be only for Ubuntu now)… and I’m working on it as I write this.

Install instructions soon. Maybe in a day or two.

Have you seen this commit?

Technically all this commit does is allow compiling with mingw/gcc on Windows or via cross compiling. You still need to rewrite the entirety of the powereditor to use Gtk+ and toggle the WINAPI and windows rendering stuff under windows only! I think starting by making it work with Gtk+ under windows first slowly disabling the windows functions etc then migrate to linux later.

One can actually download a newer version of scintilla from the scintilla page and compile it for linux with gtk+ or possibly even Qt. I tested gtk+ which compiles fine. But that still leaves us at no ported ide (“PowerEditor” aka N++)

amylonid · Dec 20, 2016, 9:51 AM

I would also like to see NP++ on Linux.
I would happily contribute to this.

Luis Piña III · Jan 5, 2017, 4:17 PM

Has there been any more development on NP++ for Linux?

gstavi · Jan 7, 2017, 10:36 PM

I don’t know if someone is working on it but … as much as I would like a native editor for Linux as good as NP++ I don’t really expect a port of NP++. Because:

NP++ works very well on wine.
Trying to port NP++ to GTK or QT will likely end up splitting the project since too many users like the Win32 version.
Much of NP++ appeal is due to plugins and their developers are even less likely to port them to another GUI system.

So I don’t expect NP++ to be ported to Linux, I just hope that someone will make a better clone than notepadqq with a framework for C/C++ plugins.

Michael Arida · Feb 2, 2017, 7:16 PM

There is an open source clone of Notepad++ that is called Notepadqq. I wrote a guide on how to install it here if you are interested.

gstavi · Feb 2, 2017, 8:24 PM

@Michael-Arida
Following what I wrote here.
I had high hopes for Notepadqq when I first encountered it.
But as a C developer who wrote plugins for Notepad++, I am disappointed with the technical decisions its author took.
It could be great if Plugin developers would have easy path to maintain plugins for both platforms from a single source base. Now Notepadqq made it impossible. Notepadqq needs to grow its own community without being able to take advantage of the existing Notepad++ community. Maybe it will succeed, Linux certainly needs a good editor. But for now Notepad++ on wine is just a better alternative.

Claudia Frank · Feb 3, 2017, 4:12 PM

@gstavi

What if one tries to migrate it using wxWidgets?
On windows it would/could still look like it is but
would give the advantage to make it run under unixOS and macOS.
It would be a lot of work and to be honest I guess it must be a hard cut
to decide starting migrating and not to update current version anymore.
And I do see, that maintaining multiple operating systems and relying
on a framework might not be a first class choice but … it could be worth,
Well, whoever defines what worth means in this context.

I’m currently playing with this framework and so far it is looking promising

Cheers
Claudia

Scott Sumner · Feb 3, 2017, 4:20 PM

@Claudia-Frank

OMG, Claudia, you are some kind of miracle worker!
:-D

Claudia Frank · Feb 3, 2017, 4:34 PM

@Scott-Sumner

Currently might be a bit misleading ;-D
It already took a couple of weeks to get it to that stage.

Cheers
Claudia

gstavi · Feb 3, 2017, 8:24 PM

@Claudia-Frank
Very impressive for couple of weeks as well.
Anything similar to NPP on Linux will be great. I hate Mac but if you get it for free go ahead.
I hope you will stick with C++ and Scintilla and a similar enough plugin framework.

I am skeptical that a full migration of Notepad++ user base is realistic but even as just an alternative it would be a big step in the right direction.

Claudia Frank · Feb 3, 2017, 9:59 PM

@gstavi and all

sorry if I gave the impression that this has been coded in c/c++.
It’s not - it’s python. wxWidgets does have a python port wxPython
and just for fun I built a python clone of npp. I just wanted to know
if wxWidgets could be used - or better - if it is a proper tool if Don one day
decides to make a linux/mac port.

Cheers
Claudia

Scott Sumner · Feb 3, 2017, 10:57 PM

@Claudia-Frank

wxWidgets is also available for C++, so Claudia, I suggest you GO FOR IT ! Post back here in a couple of days when you have Notepad++ all rewritten ! ;-)

Seriously, though, that screenshot looks awesome!

Claudia Frank · Feb 3, 2017, 11:10 PM

@Scott-Sumner

I hope you and me do have the same understanding what a “couple of days” mean. ;-)
Don’t forget the gel-time? ;-D

wxWidgets is also available for C++

Thank you, I know but it seems I didn’t express myself correctly.
What I am trying to say is

Hello C/C++ developers, do you know wxWidgets?
Might this be the tool to bring npp into the next era?
It does have many many features built-in and it doesn’t try to
emulate operating systems instead it provides an interface for the
different native APIs. Doesn’t this sound exciting? Did someone already
play with it? Could it be useful or is it just a waste of time?

Cheers
Claudia

Eduardo Lúcio Amorim Costa · Feb 20, 2017, 8:23 PM

The Notepad++ is the only application that came from Windows as inheritance to my beloved Linux. It works almost perfectly on Wine 2.x and with performance! I’m hoping it’ll be ported to Linux so he can natively run it! While this is not happening… I created this script
(https://github.com/eduardolucioac/nppstub) to try to integrate Notepad++ with Linux and its terminal (bash). In this way (example) we can do powerful searches on files contents such as…

nppstub $(find ./ -iname "*.txt" -type f -exec grep -i -l 'some text value' -- {} \;)

… and other things like run Notepad++ from terminal!

Nppstub makes Notepad++ work like these examples with Vim and Sublime…

vim -p $(some_comand)

or

subl3 -p $(some_comand)

an so on… Long life to the Notepad++! =D

Turbonoob · Mar 21, 2017, 5:08 PM

@milipili Any updates on this? I’ve always wondered if NP++ would come to linux and just now found this 2 year old thread.

There are a lot of great text editors on linux but NP++ is still my favorite. I use it at work every day and regularly work with 200+MB text files… no other text editor handles them so well. Would love to use it on my home linux machine

Cees Timmerman · May 18, 2017, 2:45 PM

@Claudia-Frank

I’ve toyed with wxWidgets years ago, but decided HTML was fast enough for my needs. Having a native-looking app without starting an entire browser is nice, though.

Python has great C++ wrappers (ctypes, swig, etc.) so npp’s killer feature – plugins – can be combined with the safety and rapid development of the cross-platform Python runtime. The heavy lifting should be done by libraries, anyway.