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Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10



 
 
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  #61  
Old June 22nd 18, 02:13 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Mayayana
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Posts: 6,438
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

"Gene Wirchenko" wrote

| For my use of a text editor, I need the capability to reformat
| paragraphs - lines to a specified column length. One would think that
| is a basic text editor function... missing from Notepad++.
|
| Well, no, it is not. It is a word processor function.
|

I don't think most people make such a sharp distinction.
And Notepad++ includes a number of extra functions that
are "word processor functions", such as auto-indenting
and color syntax highlighting. Those are also not typical
text editor functions. The only functional distinction between
the two is that a plain text editor does not provide font
properties -- bold/italic/colors/faces -- pasting images,
or anything else that's not plain text. Formatting line
length can be done in plain text.

On Windows there are two basic, built-in, system window
options for text: a plain Edit window that deals only with
text, like Notepad, or a RichEdit, for "word processing".
An Edit window only handles actual character encoding.
Line returns are part of character encoding.

Notepad++ is basically just a wrapper around the OSS
editor component, Scintilla, which is designed to be a free,
OSS version of a RichEdit window. RichEdit is what is in
Wordpad/Write. If I remember correctly, it was also the
original basis for MS Word. N++ includes most of what
Scintilla can do. (As I noted elsewhere, it also includes
an auto-completion popup, built into the Scintilla component,
though the N++ implementation of that is pretty much
useless as far as I can figure. But it certainly isn't a plain
text editor function.)
So N++ is really an improved version of Wordpad.
Anyone could make a version on N++ by just dropping
a Scintilla component on a window and hooking up
menus to it. But N++ is using that functionality to
produce a plain text editor combined with a barebones
code editor.

Personally I would put a code editor in a different
category from a word processor or plain text editor.
It benefits from RichEdit functionality but people will
generally want to save the result as plain text. For
instance, an HTML file won't work in RTF format, but for
writing it, RTF text allows one to see color syntax
highlighting. So it needs to work graphically as a
word processor but functionally as a plain text editor.

There really isn't any reason to make a sharp distinction
between word processing and a plain Edit window, unless
all you've ever known are Wordpad and Notepad.

Nil is using N++ as a word processor, to write HTML.
I use it as a plain text editor. One might also use Wordpad
as a plain text editor. For instance, if you want to print
the page without the "Untitled" that Notepad puts at the
top, you could do that in Wordpad.

I added a line length function, similar to what Franklin
wants, to my own code editor, which I use mainly for
HTML and VBS. But I also use it for basic text operations.
I add whatever function that I find I want regularly. What
I wanted was to be able to insert carriage returns where
the text wrapped, so that I could size the window to any
width and end up with a text file formatted to that width.
I often copy text from webpages that I want to save and
want it to be easily readable later. For me, easily readable
is 600-800px wide.

Can Libre Office do that? I have no idea. Maybe. I don't
want to drag out such a behemoth just to adjust
line returns in plain text. That's a job for a text editor.



Ads
  #62  
Old June 22nd 18, 04:53 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Frank Slootweg
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Posts: 1,226
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

Gene Wirchenko wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jun 2018 11:50:16 -0700, Franklin wrote:

[snip]

For my use of a text editor, I need the capability to reformat
paragraphs - lines to a specified column length. One would think that
is a basic text editor function... missing from Notepad++.


Well, no, it is not. It is a word processor function.


Semantics. There's no one-size-fits-all definition of either 'text
editor' or 'word processor'.

In fact, if such an reorganisation of some text happened to a
text file of mine, I might well be rather irritated.


I'm sure Franklin meant reformatting during composition, not during
output/rendering.

When I have a natural language document to work with, I might
well appreciate such a function. I definitely want the modes to be
separated, as they were with early WordStar.


'vim - Vi IMproved, a programmers text editor'

That 'text editor' *can* "reformat paragraphs - lines to a specified
column length", but it only *does* so, if and when you *tell* it to.

So I hope that you don't mind that my 'text editor', reformatted the
above paragraphs to a specified line length! :-) I'm sure it would throw
a tantrum when I would have the audacity to call it a 'word processor'.
  #63  
Old June 22nd 18, 05:27 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Chris
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Posts: 832
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

Frank Slootweg wrote:
Gene Wirchenko wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jun 2018 11:50:16 -0700, Franklin wrote:

[snip]

For my use of a text editor, I need the capability to reformat
paragraphs - lines to a specified column length. One would think that
is a basic text editor function... missing from Notepad++.


Well, no, it is not. It is a word processor function.


Semantics. There's no one-size-fits-all definition of either 'text
editor' or 'word processor'.


Sure there is. If you want to print (or at least printable) a text based
document, then you'd write and format it in a word processor.

Text editors have no concept of pages, margins, etc. Hence why printing
them is very hit and miss.



In fact, if such an reorganisation of some text happened to a
text file of mine, I might well be rather irritated.


I'm sure Franklin meant reformatting during composition, not during
output/rendering.


Obviously that's for him to clarify, but I'd read it mean reformatting
*for* outputting.

  #64  
Old June 22nd 18, 05:43 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Chris
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Posts: 832
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

Mayayana wrote:
"Gene Wirchenko" wrote

| For my use of a text editor, I need the capability to reformat
| paragraphs - lines to a specified column length. One would think that
| is a basic text editor function... missing from Notepad++.
|
| Well, no, it is not. It is a word processor function.
|

I don't think most people make such a sharp distinction.
And Notepad++ includes a number of extra functions that
are "word processor functions", such as auto-indenting
and color syntax highlighting. Those are also not typical
text editor functions.


Disagree. Those two functions are crucial features for writing code, which
is a major function of text editors.

I struggle to understand what you'd use syntax highlighting for in a word
processor?

The only functional distinction between
the two is that a plain text editor does not provide font
properties -- bold/italic/colors/faces -- pasting images,
or anything else that's not plain text. Formatting line
length can be done in plain text.


Printing. Word processors are designed for printing. You *can* print from a
text editor, but you have to know how many columns will fit on the page.
That number is printer and page size/orientation specific.

There are also converters to aid printing from ASCII text files and they
ignore any formatting you may have enforced on the text.


  #65  
Old June 22nd 18, 06:44 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Mayayana
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Posts: 6,438
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

"Chris" wrote

| I don't think most people make such a sharp distinction.
| And Notepad++ includes a number of extra functions that
| are "word processor functions", such as auto-indenting
| and color syntax highlighting. Those are also not typical
| text editor functions.
|
| Disagree. Those two functions are crucial features for writing code, which
| is a major function of text editors.
|

We seem to be getting into a lot of confusing
threads lately. In Win7 there's a big discussion about
the definition of "disk image". Here we're all disagreeing
about what an "edtor" is.

| I struggle to understand what you'd use syntax highlighting for in a word
| processor?
|

As I said in the part you snipped, I think of a
code editor as a 3rd thing. But they overlap. You're
defining it in terms of your own usage. If you paste
a logo and print it, it's a word processor. Anything
else is a text editor. If it offers different font colors
but you can't paste your logo, then you call it a
code editor.

Behind the scenes it's not that well defined. As I
was detailing earlier, in Windows the choice for
software is between a plain text window and a
RichEdit window. RichEdit is a word processor
component. A plain text window really only handles
bytes representing characters.

Notepad++ wraps a RichEdit clone. Most code editors
will use a RichEdit window or something similar. They're
functionally word processors in that they can offer
pasting of images, large bold headings, etc. But that
functionality is usually not translated through to the
UI because it's not relevant in a code editor.

Colored text is formatting, not plain text. Wordpad
is an example of formatting using a RichEdit window.
It allows for different fonts, bold, etc. in the same file.
That's word processing.

What makes a code editor unique is that it only
uses the formatting in the GUI. It's a word processor
that works with only plain text but uses word processor
functionality like color syntax highlighting as aids in
working with the text.

Notepad++ can save a ridiculous number of file types,
but actually they're all plain text. By that I mean that
once the file is saved it may be ANSI text or it may
be unicode text, but there's no data in the file other
than character codes that will be interpreted as letters
in some alphabet.

Conversely, a word processor will somehow save
formatting information in the file. An RTF file or a
DOC file contain the text plus images, font property
markers, etc.

Whether an editor can do something like
reformat to specific line lengths is a text function,
not a word processor function. The reason for that
is because the line endings are part of plain text
character encoding. They're still there when you
save it out as a plain text file.

What if you create a letterhead with a logo and
several fonts? That's a word processor function, right?
What if you then save that out as plain text? Was
it still written in a word processor or in a text editor?
Would that make MS Word a text editor? (Most of
my friends seem to think it's an email client.


| Printing. Word processors are designed for printing. You *can* print from
a
| text editor, but you have to know how many columns will fit on the page.
| That number is printer and page size/orientation specific.
|
So what? You're saying that a program that prints
badly is a text editor and one that prints well is a
word processor? Your definitions don't really mean
anything. They're all just your own personal distinctions.

Any editor using a RichEdit window can print well.
It can call EM_FORMATRANGE to calculate how much
text fits on a page. Notepad++ can probably do that,
since it's built around a RichEdit clone. A plain text
editor -- truly plain text -- won't have that capacity.
But printing is a whole other topic. There's access to
the printer programmatically in Windows. Things like
margins can be set directly. The main difference
between programs is going to be in terms of what
the author thought was necessary functionality.
There's nothing preventing a plain text editor from
printing beautifully.

| There are also converters to aid printing from ASCII text files and they
| ignore any formatting you may have enforced on the text.
|

?? I didn't understand that statement.


  #66  
Old June 22nd 18, 07:09 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Frank Slootweg
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Posts: 1,226
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

Chris wrote:
Frank Slootweg wrote:
Gene Wirchenko wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jun 2018 11:50:16 -0700, Franklin wrote:

[snip]

For my use of a text editor, I need the capability to reformat
paragraphs - lines to a specified column length. One would think that
is a basic text editor function... missing from Notepad++.

Well, no, it is not. It is a word processor function.


Semantics. There's no one-size-fits-all definition of either 'text
editor' or 'word processor'.


Sure there is. If you want to print (or at least printable) a text based
document, then you'd write and format it in a word processor.


Sorry, but I have to disagree (that there's a one-size-fits-all
definition ...).

Text editors have no concept of pages, margins, etc. Hence why printing
them is very hit and miss.


Then - according to you - Notepad is a 'word processor'?

From Notepad's Help:

"Notepad is a handy application when you want to view or make simple
edits to text files (usually with a .txt extension)."

[And a few more mentions of 'text'.]

Edits text? Most people would call that a text editor.

And - other than for wrapping and for replacements - Notepad hardly
understands the concept of 'word'(s), but it's still a 'word processor'?

In fact, if such an reorganisation of some text happened to a
text file of mine, I might well be rather irritated.


I'm sure Franklin meant reformatting during composition, not during
output/rendering.


Obviously that's for him to clarify, but I'd read it mean reformatting
*for* outputting.


In the part you snipped, I explained that I used vim, i.e. a 'text
editor', to reformat the paragraphs of my posting to a specified line
length.

That is indeed done for outputting - namely *viewing* (for reading) -,
but not for *printing* (i.e. no (paper) margins, pages, etc.).

I hope this shows that the definitions of 'text editor' and 'word
processor' are not cut and dry.
  #67  
Old June 25th 18, 02:06 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Gene Wirchenko[_2_]
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Posts: 496
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

On 22 Jun 2018 15:53:14 GMT, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

Gene Wirchenko wrote:
On Thu, 21 Jun 2018 11:50:16 -0700, Franklin wrote:

[snip]

For my use of a text editor, I need the capability to reformat
paragraphs - lines to a specified column length. One would think that
is a basic text editor function... missing from Notepad++.


Well, no, it is not. It is a word processor function.


Semantics. There's no one-size-fits-all definition of either 'text
editor' or 'word processor'.


Yes, semantics. ("semantics" means meaning.)

In fact, if such an reorganisation of some text happened to a
text file of mine, I might well be rather irritated.


I'm sure Franklin meant reformatting during composition, not during
output/rendering.


So am I. And if I hit that key sequence and screwed up my code,
I would not appreciate the result.

When I have a natural language document to work with, I might
well appreciate such a function. I definitely want the modes to be
separated, as they were with early WordStar.


'vim - Vi IMproved, a programmers text editor'

That 'text editor' *can* "reformat paragraphs - lines to a specified
column length", but it only *does* so, if and when you *tell* it to.

So I hope that you don't mind that my 'text editor', reformatted the
above paragraphs to a specified line length! :-) I'm sure it would throw
a tantrum when I would have the audacity to call it a 'word processor'.


Get better-tempered software then BEG.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko
  #68  
Old June 25th 18, 02:10 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Gene Wirchenko[_2_]
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Posts: 496
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

On Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:13:27 -0400, "Mayayana"
wrote:

"Gene Wirchenko" wrote

| For my use of a text editor, I need the capability to reformat
| paragraphs - lines to a specified column length. One would think that
| is a basic text editor function... missing from Notepad++.
|
| Well, no, it is not. It is a word processor function.


I don't think most people make such a sharp distinction.


Older versions of WordStar did. It was very useful.

And Notepad++ includes a number of extra functions that
are "word processor functions", such as auto-indenting


Auto-indenting is highly useful for some programming languages.

and color syntax highlighting. Those are also not typical
text editor functions. The only functional distinction between


Colour syntax is also used by many programmers.

[snip]

Personally I would put a code editor in a different
category from a word processor or plain text editor.
It benefits from RichEdit functionality but people will
generally want to save the result as plain text. For
instance, an HTML file won't work in RTF format, but for
writing it, RTF text allows one to see color syntax
highlighting. So it needs to work graphically as a
word processor but functionally as a plain text editor.


You hardly need to use RTF to have syntax-colouring.

There really isn't any reason to make a sharp distinction
between word processing and a plain Edit window, unless
all you've ever known are Wordpad and Notepad.


I have mentioned WordStar.

[snip]

Can Libre Office do that? I have no idea. Maybe. I don't
want to drag out such a behemoth just to adjust
line returns in plain text. That's a job for a text editor.


A word processor actually.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko
  #69  
Old June 25th 18, 03:05 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Mayayana
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Posts: 6,438
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

"Gene Wirchenko" wrote

| and color syntax highlighting. Those are also not typical
| text editor functions. The only functional distinction between
|
| Colour syntax is also used by many programmers.
|

We debated this for days. Now you come back 3
days later to start back at the beginning?

| Personally I would put a code editor in a different
| category from a word processor or plain text editor.
| It benefits from RichEdit functionality but people will
| generally want to save the result as plain text. For
| instance, an HTML file won't work in RTF format, but for
| writing it, RTF text allows one to see color syntax
| highlighting. So it needs to work graphically as a
| word processor but functionally as a plain text editor.
|
| You hardly need to use RTF to have syntax-colouring.
|

Yes, you do. That's what you're not getting. If not
RTF then something similar. Something that provides a
"meta-description" beyond the actual text.

Plain text: apple
Red text in HTML: SPAN STYLE="color: #FF0000;"apple/SPAN
Red text in RTF: \cf1 apple \cf0 [or rather, one possible way]

The HTML and RTF need a specialized display window to
actually show the red color. And they need special encoding,
"meta-text" to store the concept of red characters. It's
not plain text. Notepad++ also uses something like a
RichEdit RTF window. It has to in order to show colored text.
The author of the component that N++ is a wrapper around
says himself that Scintilla is meant to be modeled after
an RTF (RichEdit) component.
And it's also the same for DOC or DOCX. Some kind of
metadata holds the visual description of the text. Plain
text has no visual description. Its just bytes representing
characters.

You're not understanding how an editor actually functions
programmatically. As a result you're just creating definitions
willy nilly: Changing line returns is a word processor function
for you because you don't want it in your code editor. Your
code editor is plain text because you don't want different
fonts or pasted images in your code. But that's just the way
you yourself are using specific functionality.

It's like saying rice is a job for a frying pan. It might be for
you. But if someone thinks rice should only be cooked in a
frying pan then they don't understand how cooking works.

Try rereading the thread.


  #70  
Old June 25th 18, 09:13 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Chris
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Posts: 832
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

WeMayayana wrote:
"Chris" wrote

| I don't think most people make such a sharp distinction.
| And Notepad++ includes a number of extra functions that
| are "word processor functions", such as auto-indenting
| and color syntax highlighting. Those are also not typical
| text editor functions.
|
| Disagree. Those two functions are crucial features for writing code, which
| is a major function of text editors.
|

We seem to be getting into a lot of confusing
threads lately. In Win7 there's a big discussion about
the definition of "disk image". Here we're all disagreeing
about what an "edtor" is.


No, we're discussing what a "text editor" is and is not.

| I struggle to understand what you'd use syntax highlighting for in a word
| processor?
|

As I said in the part you snipped, I think of a
code editor as a 3rd thing. But they overlap. You're
defining it in terms of your own usage. If you paste
a logo and print it, it's a word processor. Anything
else is a text editor. If it offers different font colors
but you can't paste your logo, then you call it a
code editor.


I'm not making any differentiation regarding a "code" editor. For me it is
the same as a text editor.

Notepad++ wraps a RichEdit clone. Most code editors
will use a RichEdit window or something similar. They're
functionally word processors in that they can offer
pasting of images, large bold headings, etc. But that
functionality is usually not translated through to the
UI because it's not relevant in a code editor.

Colored text is formatting, not plain text.


I don't think you understand what syntax highlighting is and what it's
for...

It is not coloured text. It is a highlight. Coloured text, just like
italics/bold, would be encoded in the saved file and would be retained
regardless of which editor got opened it with. A highlight is an aid for
understanding the content/language that the text is written in.

Wordpad
is an example of formatting using a RichEdit window.
It allows for different fonts, bold, etc. in the same file.
That's word processing.


Yup and requires a specific file format for storing the information e.g.
rtf, docs, otd

What makes a code editor unique


They're not unique.

Notepad++ can save a ridiculous number of file types,
but actually they're all plain text. By that I mean that
once the file is saved it may be ANSI text or it may
be unicode text, but there's no data in the file other
than character codes that will be interpreted as letters
in some alphabet.

Conversely, a word processor will somehow save
formatting information in the file. An RTF file or a
DOC file contain the text plus images, font property
markers, etc.


Exactly. Except a text file is usually ASCII not ANSI.

Whether an editor can do something like
reformat to specific line lengths is a text function,
not a word processor function.


Yes, because it only works with fixed-width fonts and counts the columns.
Word processors can use variable width fonts which don't line up in
columns.

The reason for that
is because the line endings are part of plain text
character encoding. They're still there when you
save it out as a plain text file.


And that's about the only thing. Any colour or font specifics cannot be
saved.

What if you create a letterhead with a logo and
several fonts? That's a word processor function, right?
What if you then save that out as plain text? Was
it still written in a word processor or in a text editor?
Would that make MS Word a text editor?


Sure, but a very bloated and inappropriately used one. Of course, you'd
lose the logo and all the font definitions if you saved your word document
as a text file.


| Printing. Word processors are designed for printing. You *can* print from
a
| text editor, but you have to know how many columns will fit on the page.
| That number is printer and page size/orientation specific.
|
So what? You're saying that a program that prints
badly is a text editor


Not quite. I'm saying it is difficult to print well from a text editor.

Your definitions don't really mean
anything. They're all just your own personal distinctions.


They come from many years of using and seeing other people use text editors
and word processors. They are distinct use cases, but are easily confused
by those who don't understand what the difference between a text file and a
word processor file is. One is pure ASCII (maybe Unicode now) encoding
characters and the other is a binary (often proprietary) file format.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editor

Any editor using a RichEdit window can print well.
It can call EM_FORMATRANGE to calculate how much
text fits on a page. Notepad++ can probably do that,
since it's built around a RichEdit clone. A plain text
editor -- truly plain text -- won't have that capacity.
But printing is a whole other topic. There's access to
the printer programmatically in Windows. Things like
margins can be set directly. The main difference
between programs is going to be in terms of what
the author thought was necessary functionality.
There's nothing preventing a plain text editor from
printing beautifully.


True. It is a function of the editor not the file format though. PDF, for
example, will print correctly on any system regardless of what was used to
create it.

| There are also converters to aid printing from ASCII text files and they
| ignore any formatting you may have enforced on the text.
|

?? I didn't understand that statement.


For example, there's a text format called Markdown (a bit like a simpler
HTML) which allows you write simple text documents. These can then be
converted into other formats (like PDF or docx) with a program called
'pandoc' for printing and/or sharing with others.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown

Latex is another example...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX


  #71  
Old June 25th 18, 03:17 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Mayayana
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Posts: 6,438
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

"Chris" wrote

| Colored text is formatting, not plain text.
|
| I don't think you understand what syntax highlighting is and what it's
| for...
|

I've written my own editor for HTML and VBS.
My editor has more functionality and better syntax
color highlighting than Notepad++.

www.jsware.net/jsware/webed.php5

I also wrote a javascript de-obfuscator that does
a better job of "prettifying" javascript than
Notepad++ does, using only VBScript and HTML.

www.jsware.net/jsware/scrfiles.php5#jsdeob

To quote Walter Brennan, "no brag, just fact". I've
designed my editor and deobfuscator for specific
languages. Notepad++ is mediocre by design. It
sacrifices specialization in order to support numerous
languages. One size fits all.

So, yes, I do know what syntax highlighting is.

[For anyone who doesn't, it just refers to colorcoding
programming code text for clarity. Comments in one
color. Keywords in another. Etc.]

| It is not coloured text. It is a highlight. Coloured text, just like
| italics/bold, would be encoded in the saved file and would be retained
| regardless of which editor got opened it with. A highlight is an aid for
| understanding the content/language that the text is written in.
|

No, it doesn't work that way. That's what I was trying
to explain. You're seeing the editor only in terms of your
particular use for it. You see the color highlighting for
what it means to you.

That's like saying one gold bracelet
is a metal ring while another is a decoration for women.
They're both exactly the same thing. You're just defining
them differently in your usage. The first one is merely
1/2 ounce of gold. The second is a gorgeous piece of
jewelry that cost you "an arm and a leg" and expresses
your dedication to your girlfriend or wife. What you're
saying is tantamount to saying your gold bracelet is
not metal. For you it might *represent* getting laid, but
it's still made out of "plain old" metal.

Or again, it's like saying that writing Happy Birthday
red in Wordpad is different from coloring a keyword red in
your code editor. The difference is only that your code
editor doesn't save the color encoding metadata when
it saves the file. It could. But that's not relevant for
your usage, so it doesn't.

Your editor has to be a word processor in order to show
you those colors. That's to say, a plain text editor can't
show colors. That's why I said a code editor is like a 3rd
category. It's a word processor with limitations, that opens
and saves only plain text but offers word processor functionality.
The formatting it does is only in the editor window. It then
drops the formatting data when it saves the file out. But
that formatting has to be metadata encoding of some kind.
That is, word processing. Your code editor doesn't have
little red flashlights inside to highlight words, just because
you use it for code writing.

| Conversely, a word processor will somehow save
| formatting information in the file. An RTF file or a
| DOC file contain the text plus images, font property
| markers, etc.
|
| Exactly. Except a text file is usually ASCII not ANSI.
|

That's another common misconception. ASCII is
a standard set of characters represented by byte
values 0-127. ANSI uses byte values 0-255. Bytes
to 127 are the same as ASCII. Bytes 128+ are
interpeted depending on your computer setup. Your
computer uses a "codepage" that interprets those
bytes in accord with the default language you've
chosen.
If you speak English your computer will use codepage
1033 and character 255 will look like a small y with
an umlaut. If you speak Russian you'll have the Cyrillic
codepage and character 255 will look like a backward
R. If you add a copyright symbol to your "ASCII" file
it's ANSI. If you look at how Notepad will save a file
you won't see ASCII. You'll only see ANSI because no
one has stored text as 7-bit values for a long time.

Some Linux fanatics like to say ANSI is nonsense
because Linux now uses UTF-8 by default for plain
text and codepages are a Windows thing. But that's
an ignorant brag. UTF-8 is a fairly recent solution
for internationalization.
ANSI has served for many years to allow plain text
to remain as 1 byte=1 character and still adapt to
non-Western-Euro languages. UTF-8 is also ASCII
for the first 128 byte values. So in many cases,
for English/Western text files, ASCII, ANSI and UTF-8
are identical. They can only be distinguished by looking
at bytes over 127 to see whether they conform to
ANSI or UTF-8.

| Whether an editor can do something like
| reformat to specific line lengths is a text function,
| not a word processor function.
|
| Yes, because it only works with fixed-width fonts and counts the columns.
| Word processors can use variable width fonts which don't line up in
| columns.
|

Wrong again. Sorry, but you're extrapolating
inaccurately from your own specific experience.
There's no requirement for fixed-width fonts
in counting columns. You may like the columns
to line up, but that's neither here nor there.

Open your favorite code editor using a wedding
invitation font. It should still show you what column
you click on when you click the mouse in the editor.
In fact, with Notepad++ I can assign numerous
fonts. Wedding invitation for keywords, comic Sans
for plain text... I prefer Verdana for coding, which is
also not mono-spaced.



  #72  
Old June 25th 18, 03:39 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Ken Blake[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,221
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 08:13:48 -0000 (UTC), Chris
wrote:


Whether an editor can do something like
reformat to specific line lengths is a text function,
not a word processor function.


Yes, because it only works with fixed-width fonts and counts the columns.
Word processors can use variable width fonts which don't line up in
columns.



So, according to you, Notepad, which *can* work with variable-width
fonts, is a word processor, not a text editor?
  #73  
Old June 26th 18, 02:31 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Gene Wirchenko[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 496
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

On Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:05:45 -0400, "Mayayana"
wrote:

"Gene Wirchenko" wrote

| and color syntax highlighting. Those are also not typical
| text editor functions. The only functional distinction between
|
| Colour syntax is also used by many programmers.


We debated this for days. Now you come back 3
days later to start back at the beginning?


Who is "we"? You made an incorrect statement. I corrected it.

| Personally I would put a code editor in a different
| category from a word processor or plain text editor.
| It benefits from RichEdit functionality but people will
| generally want to save the result as plain text. For
| instance, an HTML file won't work in RTF format, but for
| writing it, RTF text allows one to see color syntax
| highlighting. So it needs to work graphically as a
| word processor but functionally as a plain text editor.
|
| You hardly need to use RTF to have syntax-colouring.


Yes, you do. That's what you're not getting. If not
RTF then something similar. Something that provides a
"meta-description" beyond the actual text.


No, you do not need RTF to have syntax-colouring. Sure, you can
define a language that the text is parsed for.

Plain text: apple
Red text in HTML: SPAN STYLE="color: #FF0000;"apple/SPAN
Red text in RTF: \cf1 apple \cf0 [or rather, one possible way]

The HTML and RTF need a specialized display window to
actually show the red color. And they need special encoding,
"meta-text" to store the concept of red characters. It's
not plain text. Notepad++ also uses something like a
RichEdit RTF window. It has to in order to show colored text.
The author of the component that N++ is a wrapper around
says himself that Scintilla is meant to be modeled after
an RTF (RichEdit) component.
And it's also the same for DOC or DOCX. Some kind of
metadata holds the visual description of the text. Plain
text has no visual description. Its just bytes representing
characters.


And it can be parsed.

You're not understanding how an editor actually functions
programmatically. As a result you're just creating definitions


As a programmer/analyst, I have a pretty good idea.

willy nilly: Changing line returns is a word processor function
for you because you don't want it in your code editor. Your


No, because it is not useful for most code. Thus, people tend to
look at it as a word processor function rather than a text editor
function.

code editor is plain text because you don't want different
fonts or pasted images in your code. But that's just the way
you yourself are using specific functionality.


And others. And it was not changing line returns exactly, but
how a paragraph was formed. Not that useful in *code* editing.

It's like saying rice is a job for a frying pan. It might be for
you. But if someone thinks rice should only be cooked in a
frying pan then they don't understand how cooking works.


Or that person might be a gourmet.

Try rereading the thread.


Try getting off your pedestal. Different people use tools in
different ways. Diferrent people implement tools in different ways.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko
  #74  
Old June 26th 18, 02:03 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default Reading an .ini file with Notepad using Windows 10

"Gene Wirchenko" wrote

| Try rereading the thread.

| Try getting off your pedestal. Different people use tools in
| different ways. Diferrent people implement tools in different ways.
|

Ah, so we agreed after all. I'm relieved
that I can go back to editing line returns in
my code editor without some geek vigilante
group massing outside my house.


 




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