The Dark Side of Notepad++: V8 | Hacker News Reader

The Dark Side of Notepad++: V8

notepad-plus-plus.org

46 pointstech234a20 comments

I naively expected this to be some kind of story about how Notepad++ secretly embeds the V8 JS engine for some obscure feature, and what the consequences were.

It’s not. Rather, it’s release notes for a new version (“v8”) that mention a new dark mode theme.

(Maybe the title should match the original casing of “v8” instead of “V8”?)

Yeah, what a hilariously click-baity title; worth a LOL ;-).

Me too ;)

This is the same thing as when I get an email from Steam saying "Everything from your wish list is on sale!" and it turns out just to be the game called "Everything" (http://www.everything-game.com/).

> Microsoft Bing is removed from Notepad++ settings for Search on Internet command, due to its poor reliability

> When a search engin does the censorship instead of its job, the search result loses its quality and it's not reliable anymore.

Refreshing to see such things actually dealt with. Notepad++ seems to be very clear on this, as also seen earlier with their reaction to the Hongkong protests.

For me, dark mode makes text less readable. The white letters blur a little bit into the surrounding blackness. If I look carefully, I can see faded copies at offsets around each letter. And this doesn't seem to happen in "light mode".

Unless this is a sight issue, it depends on the quality of the monitor. On Hi-Dpi with good luminance it doesn't blur.

To clarify, I didn't intend to criticize notepad++. I attribute this issue to imperfections in my eyes, and I have it on all screens and "dark mode" implementations.

I just brought it up because I feel too many people default to "dark mode better" without verifying that it is actually better for them. 50% of the population has some level of astigmatism and is probably better served by light mode.

This is caused by antialiasing implementation assuming the background is white, and using the wrong end of the gamma curve.

Every single one of them does, and it's more visible with subpixel rendering being on, as it causes visible color fringing.

The only editor I find on the Windows servers we have at work is npp and the white theme made it very difficult for me to work. I am gonna grab a portable copy of this and take with me on any server now!

I remember moving to a new place, no AC, window had no mesh screen, and it was hot. The bright white screen brought forth the wrath of the moths. From that day forward I had a greater appreciation for electronics that don't glow, and the fact linux desktops+browser had Dark themes.

Sadly can't use notepad++ in my linux environment, it was quite lovely on Windows though.

I literally just downloaded and ran Notepad++ on my Linux desktop with no issues.

You mean the notepadqq fork?

did you run it on wine? because notepad++ is not available natively on linux but works almost flawlessly on wine.

I should have made clear that it was with wine, but the process was so seamless It shouldn't really matter.

Have you heard of notepadqq? I haven't used it but I'm aware that it's supposed to be a sort of replica of notepad++

The dev's statement on the blog really hit the mark there:

> Why do developers prefer the dark theme?

> Because the light attracts bugs.

It is crazy to think that we went from UIs with black backgrounds and orange/green/white letters, to white backgrounds with black letters, and now back to black backgrounds with whiteish letters.

Early CRTs had a rather low refresh rate, so having only as little of the screen light up as needed makes sense to make the flicker less noticable. Then came 70+ Hz CRTs and LCDs… Maybe somebody else can explain why the dark backgrounds are popular again nowadays – I can't.

Some people say the dark background gives them less eye strain. I prefer light backgrounds but to each his own.

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