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CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Project Overview

Notepad3 is a Windows-only Win32 desktop text editor (C/C++) built on Scintilla (editing component) and Lexilla (syntax highlighting). It ships with the companion tool MiniPath (file browser, Ctrl+M) and integrates with the external grepWin tool (file search/grep, Ctrl+Shift+F) via pre-built portable executables. Licensed under BSD 3-Clause.

Build Commands

# NuGet restore (required before first build)
nuget restore Notepad3.sln

# Single platform builds
Build\Build_x64.cmd [Release|Debug]
Build\Build_Win32.cmd [Release|Debug]
Build\Build_ARM64.cmd [Release|Debug]
Build\Build_x64_AVX2.cmd [Release|Debug]

# All platforms at once
Build\BuildAll.cmd [Release|Debug]

# MSBuild directly (used by CI)
msbuild Notepad3.sln /m /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64

# Clean all outputs
Build\Clean.cmd

Default configuration is Release. Build scripts delegate to PowerShell in Build\scripts\.

Versioning

Run Version.ps1 before building to generate src\VersionEx.h from templates in Versions\. Format: Major.YY.Mdd.Build (build number persisted in Versions\build.txt).

Tests

cd test
TestFileVersion.cmd       # Verifies built binary version info
TestAhkNotepad3.cmd       # AutoHotkey-based GUI tests (requires AutoHotkey)

CI

GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/build.yml) builds all four platforms (Win32, x64, x64_AVX2, ARM64) in Release on windows-2022 runners, triggered on push/PR to master.

Architecture

Core Modules (src\)

File Purpose
Notepad3.c/h Entry point (wWinMain), window procedure (MainWndProc), global state structs (Globals, Settings, Settings2, Flags, Paths), MsgCommand() dispatcher
Notepad3Util.c/h Utility functions extracted from Notepad3.c: bitmap/toolbar image loading, word-wrap configuration, auto-scroll (middle-click continuous scroll)
Edit.c/h Text manipulation: find/replace (PCRE2 regex), encoding conversion, clipboard, indentation, sorting, bookmarks, folding, auto-complete
Styles.c/h Scintilla styling, lexer selection, theme management, margin configuration
Dialogs.c/h All dialog boxes, DPI-aware UI interactions, window placement
Config/Config.cpp/h INI file management, settings loading/saving, MRU list
Encoding.c/h Encoding detection and conversion (integrates uchardet)
SciCall.h Type-safe inline wrappers for Scintilla direct function calls (avoids SendMessage overhead)
DynStrg.c/h Custom dynamic wide-string type (HSTRINGW) with automatic buffer management
PathLib.c/h Path manipulation via opaque HPATHL handle
TypeDefs.h Core type definitions (DocPos, DocLn, cpi_enc_t), Windows version targeting, compiler macros
MuiLanguage.c/h Multi-language UI support, language DLL loading

Window Hierarchy

MainWndProc (Notepad3.c)
  +-- Scintilla Edit Control (hwndEdit / IDC_EDIT)
  +-- Toolbar (via Rebar control)
  +-- Status Bar (16 configurable fields)

Menu / Command Architecture

Menu items are defined in resource files (language/np3_*/menu_*.rc). Command handling in Notepad3.c is structured as:

  • MsgInitMenu() — WM_INITMENU handler; enables/disables/checks menu items based on current state
  • MsgCommand() — WM_COMMAND thin dispatcher; handles timer/notification cases inline, then delegates to static sub-handlers:
Handler Scope
_HandleFileCommands File open/save/print/favorites (IDM_FILE_*)
_HandleEncodingCommands Encoding & line endings (IDM_ENCODING_*, IDM_LINEENDINGS_*)
_HandleEditBasicCommands Undo/redo/cut/copy/paste/indent (IDM_EDIT_UNDO..CMD_VK_INSERT)
_HandleEditLineManipulation Line modify/sort/join/case (IDM_EDIT_ENCLOSESELECTION..IDM_EDIT_INSERT_GUID)
_HandleEditTextTransform Comments/URL encode/escape/hex (IDM_EDIT_LINECOMMENT..IDM_EDIT_HEX2CHAR)
_HandleEditFind Find/replace/bookmarks/goto (IDM_EDIT_FINDMATCHINGBRACE..IDM_EDIT_GOTOLINE)
_HandleViewAndSettingsCommands View/settings/rendering (IDM_VIEW_*, IDM_SET_*)
_HandleHelpCommands Help/about (IDM_HELP_*)
_HandleCmdCommands Keyboard shortcuts/navigation/window positioning (CMD_*)
_HandleToolbarCommands Toolbar button dispatch via s_ToolbarDispatch[] table (IDT_*)

Each handler returns true if it handled the command, false to try the next. All handlers are static in Notepad3.c.

Vendored Dependencies

Directory Library Purpose
scintilla\ Scintilla 5.5.8 Editor component (NP3 patches in np3_patches\, docs in doc\)
lexilla\ Lexilla 5.4.6 Syntax highlighting (NP3 patches in np3_patches\, docs in doc\)
scintilla\pcre2\ PCRE2 10.47 Regex engine for find/replace (replaced archived Oniguruma)
src\uchardet\ uchardet Mozilla encoding detection
src\tinyexpr\ / src\tinyexprcpp\ TinyExpr Expression evaluator (statusbar)
src\uthash\ uthash Hash table / dynamic array macros
src\crypto\ Rijndael/SHA-256 AES-256 encryption

grepWin Integration (grepWin\)

grepWin is an external file search/grep tool — it is not built from source as part of Notepad3. Pre-built portable executables and translation files are stored in the repository:

  • grepWin\portables\ — grepWin-x86_portable.exe, grepWin-x64_portable.exe, LICENSE.txt
  • grepWin\translations\ — *.lang translation files (e.g. German.lang, French.lang)

At runtime (src\Dialogs.c), Notepad3 searches for grepWin in this order:

  1. Settings2.GrepWinPath (user-configured INI setting)
  2. <ModuleDirectory>\grepWin\grepWin-x64_portable.exe (or x86) — portable layout
  3. %APPDATA%\Rizonesoft\Notepad3\grepWin\ — installed layout

Language mapping (src\MuiLanguage.c): grepWinLangResName[] maps Notepad3 locale names (e.g. de-DE) to grepWin .lang filenames (e.g. German.lang). The language file path is written to grepwin.ini before launching.

Portable build scripts (Build\make_portable_*.cmd) package grepWin into a grepWin\ subdirectory in the archive containing both portable executables, the license, and all *.lang translations.

Syntax Lexers (src\StyleLexers\)

50+ languages, each in a styleLexXXX.c file. All follow the EDITLEXER struct pattern from EditLexer.h:

EDITLEXER lexXXX = {
    SCLEX_XXX,          // Scintilla lexer ID
    "lexerName",        // Lexilla lexer name (case-sensitive)
    IDS_LEX_XXX_STR,    // Resource string ID
    L"Config Name",     // INI section name
    L"ext1; ext2",      // Default file extensions
    L"",                // Extension buffer (runtime)
    &KeyWords_XXX,      // Keyword lists
    { /* EDITSTYLE array */ }
};

To add a new lexer: create styleLexNEW.c, define the EDITLEXER struct, register in Styles.c lexer array, add localization string IDs to resource files.

Localization (language\)

Resource-based MUI system with 27+ locales. Each locale has a np3_LANG_COUNTRY\ directory with .rc files. Language packs are built as separate DLLs (separate projects in the solution).

Adding String Resources

  1. Add #define IDS_MUI_XXX <id> to language\common_res.h (use next available ID in the appropriate range: 13xxx for errors/warnings, 14xxx for info/prompts)
  2. Add the English string to language\np3_en_us\strings_en_us.rc in the matching STRINGTABLE block
  3. Add the same English text as placeholder to all other 25 locale strings_*.rc files (translators update later)
  4. Use InfoBoxLng() / MessageBoxLng() with MB_YESNO, MB_ICONWARNING, etc. to display; check result with IsYesOkay()
  5. Settings.MuteMessageBeep controls whether to use InfoBoxLng (silent) or MessageBoxLng (with sound) — always provide both paths

Configuration / Portable Design

  • INI file alongside executable (Notepad3.ini), no registry usage
  • No auto-creation: runs with defaults if no INI exists; user explicitly creates via "Save Settings Now"
  • Admin redirect: Notepad3.ini=<path> in [Notepad3] section redirects to per-user path (up to 2 levels)
  • Key paths: Paths.IniFile (active writable INI), Paths.IniFileDefault (fallback for recovery)
  • INI init flow: FindIniFile() -> TestIniFile() -> CreateIniFile() -> LoadSettings()
  • SettingsVersion default: SettingsVersion defaults to CFG_VER_CURRENT when missing from INI — an INI file without SettingsVersion is NOT treated as a legacy (pre-versioning) file. This ensures empty INI files and newly created INI files both get current defaults.
  • bIniFileFromScratch: Set when INI file size is 0 bytes. Cleared after SaveAllSettings() completes. While true, MuiLanguage.c suppresses writing PreferredLanguageLocaleName to avoid polluting fresh INI files.
  • Style section saving: Style_ToIniSection() removes empty lexer sections after processing via IniSectionGetKeyCount(). Style_CanonicalSectionToIniCache() establishes canonical section order but empty sections are cleaned up — only sections with non-default style values appear in the saved INI.
  • MiniPath follows the same portable INI and admin-redirect pattern (minipath\src\Config.cpp). Redirect targets are auto-created via CreateIniFileEx().
  • New parameters: When adding new Settings2 (or other INI) parameters, always document them as commented entries in Build\Notepad3.ini

Settings Save/Load Macros (src\Config\Config.cpp)

Encoding_MapIniSetting direction — CPI constants (CPI_UTF8=6, CPI_OEM=1, etc.) do NOT equal their INI storage values (3, 5, etc.). The mapping is asymmetric:

  • Encoding_MapIniSetting(true, val) = INI integer → CPI constant (loading)
  • Encoding_MapIniSetting(false, val) = CPI constant → INI integer (saving)

Passing a CPI value with bLoad=true produces wrong results. Reference: MRU_Save() correctly uses false for saving.

Conditional defaults and SAVE_VALUE_IF_NOT_EQ_DEFAULT — Some settings have defaults that depend on DefaultEncoding (e.g., SkipANSICodePageDetection, LoadASCIIasUTF8). If the encoding can change at runtime (via the Encoding dialog), the dependent Defaults.* fields must be recalculated in _SaveSettings() before the comparison macros fire — otherwise stale defaults cause incorrect save/delete decisions. See the bCurrentEncUTF8 block in _SaveSettings().

Creating Directories

Use Path_CreateDirectoryEx(hpth) (PathLib wrapper around SHCreateDirectoryExW) to recursively create directory trees. Check result: SUCCEEDED(hr) || (hr == HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS)). See CreateIniFile() in src\Config\Config.cpp for the reference pattern.

Long-Path Support / Win32 File API Wrappers

Notepad3 supports paths exceeding MAX_PATH (260 chars) on systems without the Windows 10 long-path registry opt-in by conditionally prepending the \\?\ prefix. The static function PrependLongPathPrefix() in PathLib.c handles this.

Rule: Never call Win32 file APIs directly with Path_Get(hpth). Use the PathLib wrapper functions instead — they internally apply the copy-prefix-call-release pattern:

Wrapper Win32 API
Path_CreateFile(hpth, ...) CreateFileW
Path_DeleteFile(hpth) DeleteFileW
Path_GetFileAttributes(hpth) GetFileAttributesW
Path_GetFileAttributesEx(hpth, ...) GetFileAttributesExW
Path_SetFileAttributes(hpth, ...) SetFileAttributesW
Path_ReplaceFile(hpth_dest, src) ReplaceFileW
Path_MoveFileEx(src, hpth_dest, ...) MoveFileExW
Path_FindFirstFile(hpth, ...) FindFirstFileW
Path_CreateDirectoryEx(hpth) SHCreateDirectoryExW
Path_IsExistingFile(hpth) GetFileAttributesW + check
Path_IsExistingDirectory(hpth) GetFileAttributesW + check

The prefix is only added when RtlAreLongPathsEnabled() returns false AND the path is ≥ 260 chars. On modern Windows 10+ with the opt-in, these wrappers are effectively pass-through.

Path Comparison

Use Path_StrgComparePath() for comparing file paths — it supports optional normalization and uses CompareStringOrdinal (locale-independent, case-insensitive). For raw wide-string path comparison, use CompareStringOrdinal(s1, -1, s2, -1, TRUE) instead of _wcsicmp or _wcsnicmp which are locale-dependent.

File I/O Flow

  • FileSave() (src\Notepad3.c) — Main save dispatcher. Handles Save, Save As, Save Copy. Calls FileIO() → EditSaveFile() (src\Edit.c)
  • FileLoad() (src\Notepad3.c) — Main load dispatcher. Calls FileIO() → EditLoadFile() (src\Edit.c)
  • EditSaveFile() supports atomic save (temp file + ReplaceFileW) controlled by Settings2.AtomicFileSave
  • Error handling: Globals.dwLastError holds the Win32 error code after failed I/O. FileSave() checks specific codes (ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED, ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND) before falling back to generic error.
  • File watching: InstallFileWatching() uses FindFirstChangeNotificationW on the parent directory. Must be stopped before save (InstallFileWatching(false)) and restarted after (InstallFileWatching(true)).

PCRE2 Regex Engine (scintilla\pcre2\)

PCRE2 10.47 replaced the archived Oniguruma library. The Scintilla integration lives in scintilla\pcre2\scintilla\PCRE2RegExEngine.cxx, compiled with SCI_OWNREGEX to override Scintilla's built-in regex.

Key components:

  • PCRE2RegExEngine::FindText — Scintilla regex search (pattern matching via pcre2_match)
  • PCRE2RegExEngine::SubstituteByPosition — Regex replacement with group references
  • PCRE2RegExEngine::convertReplExpr — Normalizes replacement strings: converts \1-\9 to $1-$9, processes escape sequences (\n, \t, \xHH, \uHHHH)
  • PCRE2RegExEngine::translateRegExpr — Translates Scintilla regex extensions: \</\> word boundaries → lookarounds, \uHHHH → \x{HHHH}
  • RegExFind (exported C function) — Standalone regex find used by EditURLDecode in Edit.c; wraps SimplePCRE2Engine

Replacement string backreference syntax (both flavors supported for backward compatibility):

  • $0-$99 and \0-\9 — numbered group references
  • ${name} / ${+name} — named group references
  • Escape sequences: \n, \t, \r, \\, \xHH, \uHHHH

URL hotspot regex is defined at src\Edit.c:108 (HYPLNK_REGEX_FULL macro). It matches https?://, ftp://, file:///, file://, mailto:, www., ftp. schemes. The trailing group excludes punctuation (.,:?!) so URLs don't absorb sentence-ending characters.

DarkMode (src\DarkMode\)

Windows 10/11 dark mode via IAT (Import Address Table) hooks. Includes stub DLLs for uxtheme and user32.

ARM64 Platform Considerations

Supported platforms: Win32 (x86), x64, x64_AVX2, ARM64. ARM 32-bit is not supported (the Release|ARM solution config maps to Win32).

Architecture detection

Use #if defined(_M_ARM64) or the helper macro NP3_BUILD_ARM64 (defined in src\TypeDefs.h) for ARM64-specific code paths. Important: both ARM64 and x64 define _WIN64, so use _M_ARM64 when you need to distinguish ARM64 from x64.

ARM64 rendering defaults

ARM64 defaults to SC_TECHNOLOGY_DIRECTWRITERETAIN (value 2) instead of SC_TECHNOLOGY_DIRECTWRITE (value 1) to preserve the Direct2D back buffer between frames. This avoids flickering on Qualcomm Adreno GPUs and the Win11 25H2 DWM compositor. The main window also uses WS_EX_COMPOSITED on ARM64 for system-level double-buffering. Users can override via RenderingTechnology in the INI file or the View menu.

ARM64 build configuration

  • CETCompat must be false for ARM64 (CET is x86/x64 only)
  • TargetMachine must be MachineARM64 in all ARM64 linker sections
  • _WIN64 must be defined in preprocessor definitions for all ARM64 configurations
  • Build fix scripts in Build\scripts\: FixARM64CETCompat.ps1, FixARM64CrossCompile.ps1, FixARM64OutDir.ps1

GrepWin on ARM64

No native ARM64 grepWin build exists. The ARM64 build uses grepWin-x64_portable.exe which runs via x64 emulation on Windows ARM64. The binary selection in src\Notepad3.c uses #if defined(_M_ARM64) to handle this explicitly.

Theme change flickering prevention

MsgThemeChanged() in src\Notepad3.c wraps all heavy operations (bar recreation, lexer reset, restyling) in WM_SETREDRAW FALSE/TRUE to suppress intermediate repaints and performs a single RedrawWindow() at the end. DarkMode RedrawWindow() calls in ListViewUtil.hpp omit RDW_ERASE to avoid background erase flashes during theme transitions.

Formatting

  • LLVM-based .clang-format in src\ — 4-space indentation, Stroustrup brace style, left-aligned pointers, no column limit, no include sorting
  • .editorconfig enforces UTF-8/CRLF for source, 4-space indent for C/C++; Lexilla code uses tabs (preserved from upstream)
  • File encoding rules (must be respected when creating or editing these files):
    • language\*\*.rc — UTF-8 without BOM. Never write or save these files with a UTF-8 BOM. Use Build\rc_to_utf8.cmd to strip accidental BOMs.
    • Build\Notepad3.ini, Build\minipath.ini — UTF-8 with BOM (BOM = EF BB BF). These INI reference files must retain the BOM.
  • String safety via strsafe.h throughout; deprecated string functions are disabled

Type Conventions

  • DocPos / DocPosU / DocLn for Scintilla document positions and line numbers (not raw int)
  • cpi_enc_t for encoding identifiers
  • HSTRINGW and HPATHL (opaque handle types) instead of raw WCHAR* buffers
  • NOMINMAX is defined globally — use min()/max() macros or typed equivalents

Scintilla Interaction

Always use SciCall.h wrappers (e.g. SciCall_GetTextLength()) instead of raw SendMessage(hwnd, SCI_XXX, ...). Add missing wrappers to SciCall.h if needed.

Wrapper macros follow the naming DeclareSciCall{V|R}{0|01|1|2}:

  • V = void return, R = has return value
  • 0 = no params, 1 = one param (wParam), 2 = two params, 01 = lParam only (wParam=0)
  • The msg argument is the suffix after SCI_ (e.g. UNDO for SCI_UNDO)
DeclareSciCallV0(Undo, UNDO);                                            // SciCall_Undo()
DeclareSciCallR0(GetTextLength, GETTEXTLENGTH, DocPos);                  // DocPos SciCall_GetTextLength()
DeclareSciCallV1(SetTechnology, SETTECHNOLOGY, int, technology);         // SciCall_SetTechnology(int)
DeclareSciCallR1(SupportsFeature, SUPPORTSFEATURE, bool, int, feature);  // bool SciCall_SupportsFeature(int)

Global State

Application state is centralized in global structs (Globals, Settings, Settings2, Flags, Paths) defined in Notepad3.c. Access these through their defined interfaces rather than adding new globals.

Undo/Redo Transactions

Use _BEGIN_UNDO_ACTION_ / _END_UNDO_ACTION_ macros (defined in Notepad3.h) to group Scintilla operations into single undo steps. These also handle notification limiting during bulk edits.

WriteAccessBuf — Dangling Pointer Anti-Pattern

NEVER use a pointer obtained from Path_WriteAccessBuf() / StrgWriteAccessBuf() after ANY operation that may reallocate or swap the underlying buffer of the SAME handle. The pointer becomes dangling (use-after-free).

Buffer-invalidating operations:

  • Path_CanonicalizeEx(h, ...) — calls Path_Swap internally
  • Path_Swap(h, ...) / StrgSwap(h, ...)
  • Path_ExpandEnvStrings(h) / ExpandEnvironmentStrgs(h, ...) — may realloc
  • Path_Append(h, ...) / Path_Reset(h, ...) — may realloc
  • StrgCat(h, ...) / StrgInsert(h, ...) / StrgFormat(h, ...) / StrgReset(h, ...) — may realloc
  • Path_NormalizeEx(h, ...) / Path_AbsoluteFromApp(h, ...) / Path_RelativeToApp(h, ...) — may realloc/swap

Safe patterns after invalidation:

  • Read-only: use Path_Get(h) or StrgGet(h) — always returns current buffer
  • Read-write: re-obtain via ptr = Path_WriteAccessBuf(h, 0) / ptr = StrgWriteAccessBuf(h, 0) (size 0 = no resize, just returns current pointer)

Python Environment

A Python 3.14 virtual environment is available at .venv\ for scripting tasks (batch file manipulation, locale file updates, code generation, etc.).

# Run a script (from project root, in bash/Cygwin)
.venv/Scripts/python.exe <script.py>

# Install packages
.venv/Scripts/pip.exe install <package>

Use this venv instead of system Python (which may not be installed). Useful for bulk operations across the 26 locale strings_*.rc files.

Key File Paths (Quick Reference)

Pattern Purpose
language/common_res.h String resource ID definitions
language/np3_*/strings_*.rc Locale string tables (26 files)
Build/Notepad3.ini Reference INI with documented settings
src/Notepad3.c:FileSave() Save flow entry point
src/Edit.c:EditSaveFile() Actual file write logic
src/Config/Config.cpp INI management, settings load/save
src/Dialogs.c:SaveFileDlg() Save As dialog