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Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

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Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#421

Post by satvikpendem »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #171
alsetmusic wrote: post #73

So, they went from not updating in forever, to finally updating it in some meaningful ways a couple years ago, to adding crap that no one wants pretty much right away. Too much, MS. Shoulda quit while you were ahead with tabs.

The first apps I need to replace on any new windows machine (after installing FF) are Paint, Notepad, Photo/Image viewer and MediaPlayer . The funny thing is their replacements are all ancient as well, and still awesome because they've been thoughtfully upgraded over the years without destroying their conceptual integrity, or they've just been "done" for decades. Paint.Net (v3), Notepad++, IrfanViewer, Foobar2000 & V…

I never understood the need for Notepad++. If I want to edit text quickly, notepad works fine, maybe I'll use vim or something if needed. If I want to view code, again vim works fine, and maybe VSCode if I know I'll be actively working on it. I don't see the usecase for Notepad++ personally speaking.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#422

Post by BlueTemplar »

AlexandrB wrote: post #340
BobaFloutist wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VLC is pretty damn crusty, especially to anyone not familiar with that particular....design ethos. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredible endeavor and the developers deserve endless praise, but for people that aren't already familiar with navigating things like GIMP, KDE, Open/LibreOffice, it's not especially welcoming.

I agree. I too am a VLC hater. It's not just crusty, but often buggy and worse[1] than alternatives (I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema myself, despite it being dead for almost a decade). VLC is also ugly in a non-platform specific way. It's like a web app developed before web apps were a thing and doesn't feel at home in either Windows, MacOS, or Linux. Having said that, VLC is still my last resort when nothing…

That's called Qt, and Qt is awesome, notably because it's fast. (Web apps wish they were this fast !)

Also, please tell me you are not trying to take the standard IBM desktop Interface (File, Edit...) away ?

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#423

Post by iggldiggl »

pxoe wrote: post #389
JohnFen wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. I mean, it could be worse, but notepad has become feature-laden enough that it almost eliminates the usefulness of the program. I may as well use a full text editor.

tabs and autosave are pretty essential features. they make notepad a single window app (no need to fiddle with a bunch of windows) and easy to open and close while keeping all tabs/files open (no need to save every file on exit, no need to reopen every file). it improves the usefulness of previous notepad, which was clunky to use for lack of those features and prone to data loss (no autosave, duh), which would actual…

Autosaving introduces it's own dataloss problem, though, because now you might accidentally overwrite a file you didn't actually want to change.

Inside my IDE that's not a problem because my software projects are under version control and I can easily revert unwanted changes, but for general files somewhere on my hard disk… hm.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#424

Post by squigz »

joblemblem wrote: post #114
optymizer wrote: post #74

Software companies want to shove AI everywhere because it's the shiny new thing. Hardware companies love it because they can finally have a way to fight the "it's good enough for email and browsing" argument to sell us more hardware.

> because it's the shiny new thing I wish it were that simple, but I feel for this to be true then consumers would need to want it. In reality it gives them plausible deniability for increased surveillance, control, and extracting more value from customers without their consent.

Does the audience here on HN really think that consumers don't want this technology?

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#425

Post by badsectoracula »

satvikpendem wrote: post #421
skeeter2020 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first apps I need to replace on any new windows machine (after installing FF) are Paint, Notepad, Photo/Image viewer and MediaPlayer . The funny thing is their replacements are all ancient as well, and still awesome because they've been thoughtfully upgraded over the years without destroying their conceptual integrity, or they've just been "done" for decades. Paint.Net (v3), Notepad++, IrfanViewer, Foobar2000 & V…

I never understood the need for Notepad++. If I want to edit text quickly, notepad works fine, maybe I'll use vim or something if needed. If I want to view code, again vim works fine, and maybe VSCode if I know I'll be actively working on it. I don't see the usecase for Notepad++ personally speaking.

Notepad++ is an alternative to Vim, so if you are using Vim you are covering most use cases of Notepad++ already.

In Windows i use Notepad++ so i don't have to use Vim (which is for me the only viable alternative of a lightweight "programmer's editor" and what i used for a while before learning about Notepad++ - everything else, like vscode, emacs, etc feel much more heavyweight) since i dislike its modal nature and non-standard[0] shortcuts.

[0] i know that technically they predate whatever Notepad++ uses but pretty much everything else (including on KDE, GNOME, most X11 toolkits, etc) uses the same or similar shortcuts and keys as Notepad++ so who came first is moot, it is what i am used to that matters

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#426

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 »

satvikpendem wrote: post #421
skeeter2020 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first apps I need to replace on any new windows machine (after installing FF) are Paint, Notepad, Photo/Image viewer and MediaPlayer . The funny thing is their replacements are all ancient as well, and still awesome because they've been thoughtfully upgraded over the years without destroying their conceptual integrity, or they've just been "done" for decades. Paint.Net (v3), Notepad++, IrfanViewer, Foobar2000 & V…

I never understood the need for Notepad++. If I want to edit text quickly, notepad works fine, maybe I'll use vim or something if needed. If I want to view code, again vim works fine, and maybe VSCode if I know I'll be actively working on it. I don't see the usecase for Notepad++ personally speaking.

> I don't see the usecase for Notepad++ personally speaking

Then don't use it. For sure regular notepad works fine for quick text edit. The use case for notepad++ is for when you want to do more than that. I, for example, frequently have to do a bunch of more complicated things to plain text files and notepad++ works great for those where notepad has no chance.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#428

Post by datavirtue »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #422
AlexandrB wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I too am a VLC hater. It's not just crusty, but often buggy and worse[1] than alternatives (I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema myself, despite it being dead for almost a decade). VLC is also ugly in a non-platform specific way. It's like a web app developed before web apps were a thing and doesn't feel at home in either Windows, MacOS, or Linux. Having said that, VLC is still my last resort when nothing…

That's called Qt, and Qt is awesome, notably because it's fast. (Web apps wish they were this fast !) Also, please tell me you are not trying to take the standard IBM desktop Interface (File, Edit...) away ?

The cloud portals are rediculously slow. It's almost like I'm on a free tier paying $20k per month.

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#429

Post by shmeeed »

ack_complete wrote: post #386
sahmeepee wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm, not sure which version of notepad.exe keeps a lock on open files. None that I've used in the last 25 years.

It's not the lock on the file, it's the lock on the directory. The common file dialog in Windows changes the current directory of the process to the file that was selected, and a Win32 process holds a lock on its current directory. So when you open readme.txt in a particular folder, Notepad.exe's current directory is changed to and holds a lock on that folder. This is also why so many people run into problems trying…

OMG, I finally understand what's happening there. Thank you so much!

Re: Even Microsoft Notepad is getting AI text editing now

#430

Post by JohnFen »

pxoe wrote: post #389
JohnFen wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. I mean, it could be worse, but notepad has become feature-laden enough that it almost eliminates the usefulness of the program. I may as well use a full text editor.

tabs and autosave are pretty essential features. they make notepad a single window app (no need to fiddle with a bunch of windows) and easy to open and close while keeping all tabs/files open (no need to save every file on exit, no need to reopen every file). it improves the usefulness of previous notepad, which was clunky to use for lack of those features and prone to data loss (no autosave, duh), which would actual…

> tabs and autosave are pretty essential features

Not for me. Tabs and autosave are features I absolutely don't want in Notepad. The entire value of Notepad to me is that it's simple and basic. The tabs are irritating, but at least I can pretend the tab bar doesn't exist (although I wish I could hide it), and autosave as well as restoring the last document can be disabled.

But even having to start configuring Notepad to restore some of what makes it valuable to me reduces its utility. There is great value in having a bare-bones text editor. In those cases where more features are desired, using a more featureful editor is possible. That's what I do.

All that said, there are plenty of simple editors out there that I can use instead, so it's not really an earth-shaking deal. It's just a little sad to me. Notepad had managed to maintain its value proposition and avoid feature creep for a very long time. I guess all good things come to an end eventually.

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