How to Use NotePad++ - Notepad++ Text Editor: Intro for Beginners
Notepad++ is a text editor and source code editor for use with Microsoft Windows. It supports tabbed editing, which allows working with multiple open files in a single window. The project's name comes from the C increment operator.
Notepad++ is distributed as free software. At first the project was hosted on SourceForge.net, from where it has been downloaded over 28 million times,[3][4] and twice won the SourceForge Community Choice Award for Best Developer Tool.[5] The project was hosted on TuxFamily (fr) from 2010 to 2015; since 2015 Notepad++ has been hosted on GitHub.[6] Notepad++ uses the Scintilla editor component.
How to use NotePad++
• How to use NotePad++
Notepad++ tips and tricks
• Notepad++ tips and tricks
History[edit]
Notepad++ was developed by Don Ho in September 2003.[7] The developer used JEXT (a Java-based text editor) at his company but, dissatisfied with its poor performance, he began to develop a text editor written in C++ with Scintilla.[7] He developed it in his spare time since the idea was rejected by his company.[7] Notepad++ was built as a Microsoft Windows application; the author considered, but rejected, using wxWidgets to port it to the Mac OS X and Unix platforms.[7]
Notepad++ was first released on SourceForge on 25 November 2003, as a Windows-only application. It is based on the Scintilla editor component, and is written in C++ with only Win32 API calls using only the STL to increase performance and reduce program size.[8][9]
In January 2010 the US government obliged US-based open source project hosts to deny access from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria to comply with U.S. law.[10] As a response to what the developer felt was a violation of the free and open-source software (FOSS) philosophy, in June 2010 Notepad++ moved out of US territorial jurisdiction by releasing a version on TuxFamily, in France. Some community services of Notepad++ (Such as the forums and bug tracker) remained on Sourceforge until 2015 when Notepad++ left Sourceforge completely.[11][12][13]
In 2011 Lifehacker described Notepad++ as the "The Best Programming Text Editor for Windows", stating that "if you prefer a simple, lightweight, and extensible programming plain-text editor, our first choice is the free, open-source Notepad++".[14] Lifehacker criticized its user interface, stating that "It is, in fact, fairly ugly. Luckily you can do a lot to customize its looks, and what it lacks in polish, it makes up for in functionality".[14]
In 2014 Lifehacker readers voted Notepad++ as the "Most Popular Text Editor", with 40% of the 16,294 respondents specifying it as their most-loved editor.[15] The Lifehacker team summarized the program as being "fast, flexible, feature-packed, and completely free".[15]
In 2015 Stack Overflow conducted a worldwide Developer Survey, and Notepad++ was voted as the most used text editor worldwide with 34.7% of the 26,086 respondents claiming to use it daily.[16] Stack Overflow noted that "The more things change, the more likely it is those things are written in JavaScript with NotePad++ on a Windows machine".[16] The 2016 survey had NotePad++ at 35.6%.[17]
In 2015, in response to the staff hijacking of projects hosted on Sourceforge, Notepad++ left Sourceforge completely with the forums being moved to NodeBB and the bug tracker to GitHub.[13][18]