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PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

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Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#81

Post by Pelic4n »

dw-im-here wrote: post #65
Pelic4n wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me tell you about my knives: -A swiss army knife that I always carry, for small fixes, opening packages & bottles (the scissors are amazing). -A small foldable knife for slightly heavier duty or eating on the go. -A bigger foldable knife for outdoors, camping, ang general purpose work. -A rescue knife I keep in an emergency kit, with cord cutter and glass breaker. -A huge chef knife for general cooking. -A small…

Do you use a different computer for each editing task too?

That's a sophism, sorry.

Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#82

Post by [deleted] »

levosmetalo wrote: post #73
noja wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yeah of course. But on Windows you don't need to do any of that. I think that was GP's point.

You don't need any of that, but not because Windows is somehow "better" but because it's Windows "culture" to package almost all dependencies with the application, while on Linux application use a bunch of libraries that are part of the distribution.

[deleted]

Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#83

Post by Arkanosis »

anthk wrote: post #57
Arkanosis wrote: post #25

PSPad is probably the editor in which I've written most of my code as I was learning programming on my own (mostly PHP on Windows XP, old times…). Before that, I had used Notepad (yes, I did!), Notepad2 and Notepad++, but PSPad had so many features, so well integrated together that I used it almost exclusively. At some point, I had to switch because… you know… NetBSD. And it was a real pain to start working with Emac…

>NetBSD. And it was a real pain to start working with Emacs. You could use any other editor, both for GUI and CLI.

Well, maybe. Didn't know that back then. I also used the default shell I was provided with (tcsh), if it helps understanding how lost I was.

In retrospect, I'm probably a happier coder now because of that.

Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#84

Post by blinkingled »

whalesalad wrote: post #68
shp0ngle wrote: post #33

One of the good things about Windows is the backwards compat. I know this particular code has been updated in 2021, sure, but in general, you can take binary from early 2000s and it will run on Windows 10 most likely. (OK, games and rich "multimedia CD-ROMs" from that era have problems, but it holds in general.) In linux, it kinda holds, because everything is open-source anyway, but binaries in general are not compat…

It is a double-edged sword. I believe the primary reason Windows has so many 'issues' in general is the sheer amount of hardware and ancient software that is supported. Keeping the surface area small is easier to maintain, more secure (less attack vectors), etc... I am not saying one approach is better than the other - but when it comes to Apple it makes a lot of sense that they did what the did considering they have…

> believe the primary reason Windows has so many 'issues' in general is the sheer amount of hardware and ancient software that is supported

The hardware part in the old days maybe - they have solved that problem. I am not sure beyond people's opinions there are any real issues directly attributable to backwards s/w compatibility.

Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#85

Post by sp0rk »

tomc1985 wrote: post #75
sp0rk wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you load outside data into the program, it has the potential to be exploited. There is no shortage of exploits for editors, media players, etc. that only require the victim to open a specially crafted file.

What makes you think exploit crafters are waiting around for you to load their random JPG into an old version of Paint Shop Pro? It's not like these exploits are one-size-fits-all

Waiting for victims to run your malware is not an active process. It requires no resources on the attacker's part beyond maintaining a server.

Maybe it will connect to a server that has been dead for five years or maybe it's pointing towards a domain name that the attacker still maintains. Maybe instead of a trojan, it's a cryptolocker or old school destructive malware. I don't know why anybody would want to gamble with something like this.

Also, some of the exploits are one-size-fits-all because they target the underlying libraries that the software is using.

Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#86

Post by tomc1985 »

sp0rk wrote: post #85
tomc1985 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think exploit crafters are waiting around for you to load their random JPG into an old version of Paint Shop Pro? It's not like these exploits are one-size-fits-all

Waiting for victims to run your malware is not an active process. It requires no resources on the attacker's part beyond maintaining a server. Maybe it will connect to a server that has been dead for five years or maybe it's pointing towards a domain name that the attacker still maintains. Maybe instead of a trojan, it's a cryptolocker or old school destructive malware. I don't know why anybody would want to gamble w…

Yes but the mechanics of exploit crafting aren't generic at the slightest. Everything is bespoke. Which means that for the random bystander the probability that your specific-combination-of-old-software-and-data being exploited is extremely low.

If you've reason to be paranoid, sure. And if you're trolling old warez archives with software contemporary to the time, sure. But otherwise? The odds are too low and the possibility space too high for anyone to bother

Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#87

Post by open-source-ux »

teh_klev wrote: post #55
badsectoracula wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using Paint Shop Pro 7 as my main image editor[0], it has the best UX of any image editor i've used, was released 21 years ago and i have zero concerns about its security - not because i expect it to be secure (chances are it is using, e.g., a jpeg library with security bugs) but because there isn't any use case where that would matter. Similarly i use Delphi 2 and C++ Builder (both around 25 years old) now and t…

> I'm using Paint Shop Pro 7 Same here, and TextPad from the same era still works (I occasionally try the version in my download archive saved back around 2001).

TextPad is still being updated and available for sale (the latest release was on 11 April 2021). It's even older than PSPad. Wikipedia says it was first released in 1992, that's almost 30 years ago. (https://www.textpad.com/products/textpad/features)

I'm impressed by the longevity of both PSPad and TextPad and it's refreshing to encounter fast, native, nimble desktop programs.

Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#88

Post by stephenr »

perryizgr8 wrote: post #62
stephenr wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a text editor, what's wrong with any of TextMate, BBEdit, ubEthaEdit or CotEditor, to name but a few. Literally the only thing I've ever seen anyone in a professional setting use MS Paint for, is pasting the result of a screen dump, because apparently capturing to a file would have made it to convenient for the user. What exactly do you see missing from the macOS Calculator, that Windows has?

> For a text editor, what's wrong with any of TextMate, BBEdit, ubEthaEdit or CotEditor, to name but a few. There is nothing wrong with those. I guess it is a matter of getting comfortable with the UI. > Literally the only thing I've ever seen anyone in a professional setting use MS Paint for, is pasting the result of a screen dump, because apparently capturing to a file would have made it to convenient for the user.…

> There is nothing wrong with those. I guess it is a matter of getting comfortable with the UI.

It’s a text editor. The “UI” is a box you type in. What “getting used to”?

> Even the markup tools in macos's default editor are cryptic and hard to use.

If you say so.

> On windows, the calculator has a button that converts it into various specialized versions. Like programmer, which has a nice bit-wise display also. There are many built-in unit conversions too.

macOS built in calculator has had multiple modes and conversion tools (including e change rates using online lookup) for years. I don’t know exactly how long it’s had those features, but it’s since the early days of Mac OS X at least.

Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#89

Post by passivate »

levosmetalo wrote: post #73
noja wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yeah of course. But on Windows you don't need to do any of that. I think that was GP's point.

You don't need any of that, but not because Windows is somehow "better" but because it's Windows "culture" to package almost all dependencies with the application, while on Linux application use a bunch of libraries that are part of the distribution.

How is it not better for the end user?

Re: PSPad: A freeware programmer's editor for Windows

#90

Post by passivate »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #34
shp0ngle wrote: post #33

One of the good things about Windows is the backwards compat. I know this particular code has been updated in 2021, sure, but in general, you can take binary from early 2000s and it will run on Windows 10 most likely. (OK, games and rich "multimedia CD-ROMs" from that era have problems, but it holds in general.) In linux, it kinda holds, because everything is open-source anyway, but binaries in general are not compat…

Just because you can doesn't mean you should run something that old. I would not want to run a 21 year old native application written in C or C++ from a different era of security consciousness on any modern machine. Certainly not anything connected to the internet--remember that was the hey-day of massive worms that crippled entire networks of machines. If the source hasn't been touched in decades, treat it like an a…

Our industry (biotech) relies heavily on Windows and specifically Windows backwards compat. Heck just this last month we put in some used analytical equipment that came with software that was first released on XP. It runs like a champ on W10-32bit. The software we use is often crazy expensive - when you add in the compliance addons, it routinely exceeds USD 10K. I can tell you unequivocally that Windows' backwards compat has saved our company tens of thousands of dollars.

Software isn't magic, security isn't magic either. You can employ physical protections (air-gap) and hardware/software (firewall, etc) protections to contain the threat. All software has the potential to be vulnerable, and so a sysadmin would be wise to treat them equally - new or old.

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