PSPad 5.0 future

Question
Is acceptable for you to implement APP analytics? See: forum.pspad.com´
For now I will include it in the developer builds only.

What is done
Just now PSPad is moved to Delphi XE10 Seatle, it means I get rid of additional component which added Unicode support into nonunicode Delphi (e.g. TNT unicode controls) and replace it with standard native components.

- Most of main code is cleaned of WideStrings and Unicode based functions.
- Working 32b version with most of functionality
- File type plugins: forum.pspad.com
- Code page support with code page autodetection: forum.pspad.com
- Code page menu content customization form forum.pspad.com¨
- 32b version is ready include scripting support

All localization files are stored in UTF-8 - it's nice to see PSPad interface localized in Russian, Japanese, Chinese, ... (including menu e.t.c.)

What is necessary to do/what doesn't work now
- Scripting support in 64b version

What will follow
Once I have functional version (including 64b), I will start work on implementing the new editor engine.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Updates
March 16th:
Hex editor in 64b version
March 8th:
First public beta: forum.pspad.com
From this moment developer builds will be continuously published in PSPad developer forum
March 6th:
Code clip inserting (each inserting adds additionalCrLf)
Scripting works, include 64b version! I have to decide if scripts will be stored in ANSI as now Unicode or UTF-8
March 5th:
Lot of small fixes, which came from testing
March 2nd:
Capture console output works in 32b and 64b version now. In previous build it causes application hang.
March 1st:
Build 66 is available for testing: forum.pspad.com
I have 64b PSPad
Feb 28th:
CP menu customization
Feb 26th:
File plugins working in 32b and 64b version
Code page autodetection with future possibility to easy extend it by users.
Feb 21th:
Windows Scripting temporary disabled

Edited 22 time(s). Last edit at 2017-03-17 06:48 by pspad.

pspad:

Just now PSPad is moved to Delphi XE10 Seatle

OMG, great work, Jan!

pspad:

It's necessary to implement any clever Code page support. I am able to load/save file in any code page, but I need idea, how to make it user friendly.

First, you need to implement manual code page choice, do it like in browsers (Opera 12.18 on the screenshot). With Delphi XE10, MLang features are already in RTL, available via SysUtils.Languages or something like.

Your screenshot doesn't work.
There are groups of code pages containing ANSI, OEM, ISO
What I need is some genial idea how to show it to users.

Maybe better is what does Total Commander in it's viewer:

1. Separate menu item

2. Basic set:
ANSI
OEM
UTF-8
UTF-8 (BOM)
UTF-16LE
UTF16-BE
------------
other code pages as you can see on image

with possibility to add own code pages it should be enough to cover all needs.

Maybe:

Encoding
------------
ANSI
OEM
UTF-8
UTF-8 (BOM)
UTF-16LE
UTF16-BE
------------
Asian CP >
American CP >
European CP >
DOS CP >
------------

--
Stefan (pleased user since 1722)
Do you know you can spend Jan a beer? (click here)
Inofficial FAQs + Infos + Special Settings

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-02-20 08:12 by Stefan.

Stefan, it's 2-level menu and it will slow down selection.
Second problem - I don't know if I am able to define all "groups" of encoding. And some code pages will repeat in different groups

Baltic group (Lithuanian and Latvian) is different from Russian even it's same region.
Some European countries - Bulgaria, Serbia uses same encoding as Russia (Cyrilic).
Turkish has own encoding, not Arabian. Vietnam uses encoding based on Latin chars...
I am afraid groups are nice idea, but number of groups would exceed size of items in my picture

OK ok, I see

.

.

pspad:

Your screenshot doesn't work.

Link.

pspad:

Some European countries - Bulgaria, Serbia uses same encoding as Russia (Cyrilic).

Cyrillic has own issues. For example, Bulgarian and Serbian use CP855 for OEM, but CP1251 for ANSI. Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarussian use CP866 for OEM and CP1251 for ANSI (same as Bulgarian). But there are two additional encodings, KOI-8R for Russian and KOI-8U for Ukrainian.

I think, we need three things:
* Unicode and OEM/ANSI encodings at first level, constantly.
* Encodings from the group of current ANSI encoding (or current encoding of the file) at first level, temporarily. It should be change for every file.
* Encodings from other languages/scripts, grouped by language/script, like in browsers.

For example, when I set CP1251 for a file, all other Cyrillic encodings should move to first level, so I easily can choose rarely used KOI-8R or ISO-8859-5, if I need them. But, when I open a file encoded with Big5, other Chinese encodings move to first level, Cyrillic become grouped at second level.

pspad:

...
There are groups of code pages containing ANSI, OEM, ISO
What I need is some genial idea how to show it to users.
...
with possibility to add own code pages it should be enough to cover all needs.

Hi, I am pleased to see such progress with the new generation of PSPad, great work!

Is it needed to have an (almost) complete list of the encodings in a menu?

I personally much prefer this settings as a part of the Open / Save dialogs, like it is implemented e.g. in BabelMap (a nice unicode-centered editor with the unicode character data included)
www.babelstone.co.uk
see the dialog in:
www.babelstone.co.uk
besides the default "auto detect" there is an ordered list of supported encodings in the combo-box "encoding"
these are grouped according to "families", e.g.: UTF..., ISO..., Windows...
I also like the descriptive labels, e.g.:
ISO 8859-2 : Latin 2 (Non-Cyrillic Central European)

There are similar settings in the Save dialog
www.babelstone.co.uk

and furthermore BOM and newline settings, which I prefer in this dialog too (as opposed to some program-wide settings).

Even if the encoding would be set via menu, I would prefer it to only contain a small selection - the most basic ones like utf-8, the respective "national" ISO... or Windows... (if it can be inherited form the regional settings). This part of the menu would also contain the previously used ones (maybe an adjustable number of them), or the list could be user-adjustable without the last-used functionality.
Most of the encodings would be selectable through a dialog, which could be ordered in in encoding "families" like above in BabelPad, or even in a plain alphabetically sorted list - preferably, there would be similar info in each item which would suggest the regional, language or script specifics of the encoding.

Some other features would be possible in such a dialog - e.g. a search, which would narrow the matching list while typing (within the descriptive labels of the encodings) - e.g. European, Latin, Cyrillic ...

Even some kind of "live preview" of a given file as opened with the specified encoding could be useful (e.g. like in LibreOffice Calc etc.)

As for the idea of a development version-5 build od PSPad, even with some limitations, I believe, that at least many of the beta-users would greatly appreciate it! (I for one, would, of course...)

regards,
vbr

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-02-20 18:00 by vbr.

Hello vbr. Thank you for your post.
Personally, I don't prefer expending of open / save dialogs. It's problematic on different Windows version (different dialog look - size e.t.c.) Yes, it's a handy to have it there. But on the other side, personally I use open dialog rarely. Mostly I open file directly from explorer (dblclick, context menu)
As alternative can be used dialog what will appear in those cases with all file related settings with possibility to call it anytime.

It's good to see different ideas.
When base code page handling will be implemented on the background, it can be used in any visual presentation.

Take settings from regional settings is still problematic - I still meet preinstaled computers with wrong regional settings - non correct images from big computer companies.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-02-20 18:38 by pspad.

JSON reformat is implemented in the new version