AfterDawn: News

One of Windows' most long-standing issues was finally fixed

Microsoft's own developer conference Build 2018 ended yesterday, and while there were a myriad of updates to different tools within Windows, one of the updates that had the crowd cheering the most had to do with the little text editor called Notepad.

For years and years, actually a total of 33 years, Windows Notepad has been a pain in the behind for developers, and there's really one reason for it. It doesn't support the Linux operating system's line feed, that is it doesn't recognize when line is changed in the text.



Since 1985, that is the first version of Windows, the Notepad has served all sorts of users for taking notes and obviously even coding. However, never has it played well with other types of line feeds, including the ones Linux text editors use.

This means that in the worst case you'll just have one endless line, and everyone knows, or can imagine, how frustrating that is to edit.

While this seems like a minor problem, as the Microsoft presenter below notes (no pun intended), it's often the little things that matter the most. And thus, after decades of frustration from developers, Microsoft has fixed the Notepad and it finally supports Linux line feed.

You'll find the new, fixed and improved, Notepad in the upcoming updates of Windows 10.





Written by: Matti Robinson @ 10 May 2018 13:14

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• 1 comment

• KillerBug

  Notepad is just so far behind the free competition. This little change makes basically no difference.
  
  Hyper-V breaks superior alternatives, so any changes there is like planting trees in the middle of the ocean.
  
  If it were not for the fact that Windows updates still kill GRUB I would think they were actively trying to dissolve their own monopolies. They can't even be bothered to test to see if Microsoft Office updates will kill their latest consumer flagship product (Windows Mixed Reality). And yeah...a failed update for a part of Office that isn't even installed can completely kill Mixed Reality (heck, right now a clean install with all updates won't even support it!) Nor do they put what is arguably the best VR hardware on the market (certainly the best for the price) on the XboX. I'd be annoyed if not for the fact that they could easily make another monopoly out of it if not for the fact that it's so broken that it makes Windows ME look good.
  
  Basically they are a company that makes an OS that's worse than the one they were selling 10 years ago, an office suite that's worse than the one they were selling 10 years ago, some poorly built laptops that cost twice as much as better units from the competition, some corporate level stuff that isn't as good as FOSS, and some excellent hardware (made by other companies) with essentially no software support. It's baffling.

  12.5.2018 01:05 #1