Getting the Most Out of Notepad++

[Zeus]

Great to know its working for you and thanks for the heads up on the Make Languages Menu Compact setting.

[Bidmaron]

Moon/dd, can we get this thread stickied?

I have the FG2 lexer working with the new functionlist (yea!!!). I had to do the compressed menu workaround also.

Aside from it being slow, is there any remaining incompatibility with the spellcheck function from Spudman?

Zeuss, do you intend to make a lexer version that handles lua in the xml files or is that a bridge too far? Sounds ungrateful to ask you, I know, but, nevertheless, I am deeply grateful (and thanks Spud, for getting us all started on this).

[Bidmaron]

Below are the composite instructions to get Dr Zeuss' fantastic FGIILua lexer working along with the almost-as-great FunctionList capability, along with the compressed menu fix:

1. Quit NPP if running.
2. Download Dr Zeuss' FGIILua Lexer from here.
3. From the zip folder, drag the file "Plugins\FGIILua.dll" into the Plugins folder of the NPP install directory.
4. Also from the zip folder, drag the file "Plugins\Config\FGIILua.xml" into the "Plugins\Config" folder of the NPP install directory.
5. To confirm everything so far, startup NPP, load any ruleset lua file (look in the "rulesets\SOMERULESET\scripts" folder). Find a SetValue or GetValue. These should be colorized a dark blue if everything has gone okay so far.
6. Quit NPP. If you want to customize Dr Zeuss' configuration, see the readme in his download zip or go here.
7. Download version 2.1 or beyond from the sourceforge here.
8. From the download folder, copy "FunctionList.dll" into the Plugins folder of the NPP install directory.
9. From the download\config folder, copy "Gmod Lua.bmp" and "C++.flb" into
the "plugins/config" folder of the NPP install directory.
10. Also from the download\config folder, copy "FunctionListRules.xml" into the application data folder (something like c:\users\NAME\appdata\roaming\Notepad ++) (and, by the way, Microsuck, in its I-know-better-than-you way has conveniently hidden this folder they want you to use for your application data instead of the Program Files which they don't want you to use but which isn't hidden, and you may have to go into your windows folder view menu and turn on display of hidden folders -- or, you can just go to your start menu to Fantasy Grounds II, find the application folder option, which will open up FG2's application data and then navigate back up the tree to the Notepad ++ folder).
11. Open this file (I guess you could use Notepad++ for this, but remember to close if after you do. I used regular Notepad, because it just seemed perilous to edit a configuration file in the same program it configures) and paste in the below code provided by Dr. Zuess:

<Language name="FGIILua" imagelistpath="">
   <CommList param1='&quot;' param2='&quot;' />
   <CommList param1="&apos;" param2="&apos;" />
   <CommList param1="--" param2="" />
   <CommList param1="--\[\[" param2="\]\]" />
   <Group name="FUNCTION" subgroup="" icon="0" child="0" autoexp="0" matchcase="1" fendtobbeg="" bbegtobend="\&lt;do\&gt;|\&lt;if\&gt;|\&lt;function\&gt;" keywords="">
        <Rules regexbeg="^[-\s]*function\s+" regexfunc="[\w_:.]+" regexend="\s*\([\w_,.\s]*\)" bodybegin="" bodyend="\&lt;end\&gt;" sep="" />
        <Rules regexbeg="^[-\s]*" regexfunc="[\w_:.]+" regexend="\s*=\s*function\s*\([\w_,\s]*\)" bodybegin="" bodyend="\&lt;end\&gt;" sep="" />
        <Rules regexbeg="^" regexfunc="[\w_]+" regexend="\s*=" bodybegin="\{" bodyend="\}" sep="" />
    </Group>
</Language>

Put it after one of the existing "</Language>" tags, and you don't have to worry about whether the tabbed text lines up with what is already there.
12. Startup Notepad++ with one of the lua script files we discussed above. Ensure FGIILua is the language selected in the Languages menu.
13. Select the Settings->Preferences menu option.
14. In the preferences, select the "Language Menu/Tab Settings" tab.
15. Uncheck the "Make languages menu compact" box and close the preferences.
16. Close and restart Notepad++ with the script file you've been using.
17. Select the Plugins->FunctionList->List... menu option, and you should now see the functions defined in the lua file.
18. To get autocompletion, select the Settings->Preferences menu option.
19. Select the "Backup/Auto-Completion" tab.
20. Check the "Enable auto-completion on each input" box and ensure the "Word completion" button is selected. (I have been advised that, while counter-intuitive, this is indeed what you need to get this to work [Thanks, Zeuss]). I checked the "Function parameters hint on input" box as well.

Once I confirm that the spellcheck, while slow, is not conflicting with the lexer and functionlist, I will update these instructions to handle installing that as well, so folks like me who like to have it all laid out in near-idiot-proof fashion can just do it.

[Zeus]

Nice one Bidmaron. That should indeed make it clearer.

One comment, I cannot get Autocompletion to work properly if the setting in preferences is set to 'Function completion'. It worlks only if 'Word completion' is ticked. Strange.

[Bidmaron]

Nice one Bidmaron. That should indeed make it clearer.

One comment, I cannot get Autocompletion to work properly if the setting in preferences is set to 'Function completion'. It worlks only if 'Word completion' is ticked. Strange.

Fixed, thanks, Doctor.

[SpudmanWP]

It was compact menu thing for me... it's now working.

Thanks

btw, I have not found a way to speed up the squiggly spellcheck issue

[Bidmaron]

Well, aside from the slowness, there's no harm in doing as you suggest, which is to install it and disable it until you are working on something like module text where you want to spell-check and then turning it on, right? I mean, there is no inherent conflict between your spell-check and the functionlist and lexer, right?

[Zeus]

I find even when I am working on a plain text file, the Auto-Check feature slows down NPP as the display begins to lag behind keystrokes.

[Bidmaron]

Ok, but if you disable it, that problem goes away. At least I haven't noticed it. I'm considering updating my instructions above to put in the spellcheck as an optional. If no one is aware of any problems if you disable it until you need it (to spellcheck a module, e.g.), is there any harm in having it?

By the way, Zeuss, you might have mentioned my question regarding a lexer for xml files with lua embeds. Is that something you might tackle?

[Zeus]

Ok, but if you disable it, that problem goes away. At least I haven't noticed it. I'm considering updating my instructions above to put in the spellcheck as an optional. If no one is aware of any problems if you disable it until you need it (to spellcheck a module, e.g.), is there any harm in having it?

Yes. If its disabled its fine. I would edit documents with it disabled and then when finalising, spellcheck the document. Its a little faster and you don't get the bother of the lag whilst editing.

By the way, Zeuss, you might have mentioned my question regarding a lexer for xml files with lua embeds. Is that something you might tackle?

Yeah I did look at it, I hit a challenge with how to differentiate in the lexer between characters that are shared between the Lua language and XML e.g. < and >.
At present if you set a FG .xml file's language to FGIILua, any embedded script block regions will by highlighted as per the FGIILua syntax highlighting, of course the XML regions of the document lose their syntax highlighting until you switch back.

At the moment, its an all or nothing affair. I will continue to poke around though, maybe I can figure something out.