Notepad++ Finally Lands On macOS as a Native App (nerds.xyz) 45
BrianFagioli writes: Notepad++ has finally made its way to macOS, and this time it is not through a compatibility layer. A new community-driven port brings the long-standing Windows text editor over as a fully native Mac application, built with Cocoa and compiled for both Apple Silicon and Intel systems. Instead of relying on Wine or similar tools, the project replaces the Windows-specific interface with a macOS-native one while keeping the core editing engine intact, allowing longtime users to retain the same workflow, shortcuts, and overall feel.
The port is independent from the original Notepad++ project but tracks upstream changes closely, with development happening in the open. It is code-signed and notarized, and notably avoids telemetry or ads. Plugin support is being rebuilt for macOS and is still evolving, but the groundwork is in place. While macOS already has several established editors, this effort is aimed squarely at users who want the familiar Notepad++ experience without relearning a new tool. You can download the app here.
The port is independent from the original Notepad++ project but tracks upstream changes closely, with development happening in the open. It is code-signed and notarized, and notably avoids telemetry or ads. Plugin support is being rebuilt for macOS and is still evolving, but the groundwork is in place. While macOS already has several established editors, this effort is aimed squarely at users who want the familiar Notepad++ experience without relearning a new tool. You can download the app here.
Freecell (Score:5, Funny)
I got tired of my mac not having freecell. So I told claude to create it as a python app with a gui. And it did. But the graphics were a little kludgy. So I told it to try again as a swift app. Boom, I have freecell for mac now. I've never coded anything for mac, I haven't even looked at the (vulnerable) code it's created.
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Totally curious how your prompts went for this. Did you give it an existing code base? Just told it what the game looked like? Assumed it knew already?
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Wish I kept the prompt, but I didn't give it much at all. I have also done solitaire as well. I gave it no hints on what the rules where or what the game looked like. It was something as simple as this.
"I want freecell for Mac. Make it as close to the windows version as you can. Write it in swift and make it a native MacOS application with an icon and everything that goes along with that. If you need to download any libraries or compilers ask me to approve them."
I already had xcode installed and I THI
Notepad++ is very useful on Windows (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't see the appeal for macOS users, though. BBEdit is pretty incredible, and can be used for free (although I have been a paid user for many years).
Re:Notepad++ is very useful on Windows (Score:4, Informative)
I remember BBEdit from ages ago. But these days, hell, I just use VS Code.
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I ran VSCodium for a while a couple of years ago, but then PlatformIO stopped working -- the whole MS plugin repos stopped working, so I just gave in.
Re:Notepad++ is very useful on Windows (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm all for stuff that makes transitioning from one OS (Windows) to another (MacOS in this case) less difficult. Maybe they'll port it to linux next?
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Re: Notepad++ is very useful on Windows (Score:1)
Sublime Text is also a great option Im very happy with - and I agree that N++ shines specifically on Windos, it was designed and written for that desktop / UI philosophy while Sublime comes much more from mac traditions.
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Sublime Text is also a great option Im very happy with - and I agree that N++ shines specifically on Windos, it was designed and written for that desktop / UI philosophy while Sublime comes much more from mac traditions.
Never heard of Sublime Text, thanks!
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Sublime Text is also a great option Im very happy with - and I agree that N++ shines specifically on Windos, it was designed and written for that desktop / UI philosophy while Sublime comes much more from mac traditions.
Never heard of Sublime Text, thanks!
$99!!!
RU Sirius?!?
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Try TextMate, it is open source now and while it might not be maintained much anymore (last release was in 2021) it had been my go to text editor on macOS for over a decade (I paid for it around 2007). It is relatively snappy for small text editing needs and has loads of plugins, although many are probably broken as they often were written in python 2 or ruby. While not maintained, it still works for my limited needs these days.
BBEdit is also a solid choice, it is an ancient Mac app from the days of System
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There was a time I used BBEdit to open a couple different multi-gigabyte log files that were on one of our Linux servers*. It took a while to transfer the files; but, once they finally opened, it worked like a champ. The only issue was that after I made several changes, I had to clear the editing rollback buffer to keep it from bogging down too much.
I also find the ability to write and save scripts (in perl, especially) as "text factories" quite useful.
*There was some specific purpose driving that choice ve
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I don't see the appeal for macOS users, though. BBEdit is pretty incredible, and can be used for free (although I have been a paid user for many years).
Man, that was the ONLY Application I coveted from my Windows-Dev. Days! I just never liked BBEdit. . .
Glad to see it is finally coming to a Worthwhile Platform; hope it’s not Nerfed. . ..
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I think Notepad++ is crap but it is free and on Windows so I use it when forced. BBEdit is the only thing keeping me on Mac. I have to get into an alternative that is on linux. any suggestions?
So did Notepad++ ever fix their poor RegEx UI?
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Don't you mean, "once you get into it, you'll never :q!"
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LOL. good one.
Can VIM do autocomplete and AI stuff yet? I've never got beyond basic vi. somebody should do a good video on what kind of stuff VIM can do to motivate people like me into starting over again because it's quite a change in habits.
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Can VIM do autocomplete and AI stuff yet? I've never got beyond basic vi. somebody should do a good video on what kind of stuff VIM can do to motivate people like me into starting over again because it's quite a change in habits.
Short answer: Yes.
That said, I haven't used them. I don't even use the feature where it will automatically indent you the right amount on the next line of code - I expect to be typing that and it just slows me down to have the editor interrupt me.
Fancy autocomplete stuff has been there for ages, from built in ones that complete based on other text or omni-completion with language aware suggestions, to IDE/VSCode/Intelisense like ones. Though I haven't really used them, I'd vouch for them being good (read en
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(sorry to reply twice... and I rambled on a bit...)
... somebody should do a good video on what kind of stuff VIM can do to motivate people ...
IMO, this is something that's difficult to show. The main difference between Vim and nearly all other editors is that Vim is modal (if you've ever used it, you're aware - the "[ESC]:wq" stuff). That means not only do I hardly ever need to touch my mouse, but my fingers rarely leave the home row. It doesn't need Emac's like claw hand key combos, and I never touch any menus or need to do any hard to reach key combos. I don't even use the arrow keys to move a
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VSCode and Kate.
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During my Win95 and Win98 times I used Notepad++ intensively. ... so now I only use it, because I do not want to use the MS Notepad.
Mostly because it had a feature where it captured every text copy/ed (for pasting) in a text file.
Of course over the course of a year it became gigantic, but it was very useful. Just save it occasionally with a new name and start a new one.
Unfortunately that feature got removed
Then the editor hat little scripts to do silly things ... if you switch to a Mac and can take those wi
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Re: Notepad++ is very useful on Windows (Score:2)
I always thought notepad++'s thing was it used native windows stuff for all the UI to keep light.
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I assume this is a joke but vim is (always has been) built-in as long as Macs have been on OS X. Kinda hard to believe that Macs have been UNIX longer than they were on the original MacOS.
% which vim /usr/bin/vim
There's also a pretty reasonable gui port called MacVim, though I rarely use it.
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For terminal based text editor I prefer Micro. It is written in Go and as such runs on many platforms. There is no learning curve to get basic things done and it is very lightweight: the binary archive is under 5MB, and on macOS the actual static binary is only 13MB.
https://micro-editor.github.io... [github.io]
As for Vi ... I've never been able to bother learning it. The design is made to use as little bits as possible over a very slow modem connection, not to be easy on humans, although the claim was that the design w
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One of the reasons I dislike it is because I had to do many code reviews in my career that accidentally included '!w' due to the other person forgetting to push the esc key and not realizing it.
:w!
actually ;-)
I've been using vi/vim for about 30 years. It does have a learning curve, but to get to "basic text editor" level there are really only about 5-6 commands you need to learn. I navigate around a file with regexes, syntax aware shortcuts, etc, and it's just so fast. I can't think of any reason to switch.
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Vi/vom/neovim has a pretty straight forward concept.
Which a mere mortal comprehends in three sentences
And on top of that: most commands are plain forward one letter a deviations of english words.
It is not really complicated.
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Anyone who uses vim on the regular is a masochist. Yes it's good to have some basic knowledge of it since it is the one and only editor that is guaranteed to be on a *nix system and may be all you can use if the system is in a seriously fucked state. But any other reason there a fuck ton of other editors, most already installed in most distros by default these days that are miles saner to use on the regular.
You think VI is bad, older *nix systems had dynamic libraries that were not part of the root filesystem and VI was one of those that was linked to said dynamic libs. So if the system was fucked, VI was not available. ED was it. Period. I've had to rescue many a system using my ED skills. Does that make me a masochist? Damn straight.
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Ed isn't a flex if you use vi, ed is just a predecessor. Ed was the editor, which was enhanced by Bill Joy to form ex. Joy then added visual mode to ex to make vi.
vi is just a su
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FreeBSD has a statically linked /rescue directory that still contains static vi. I haven't had to rely on those tools in years, but they can really come in handy when they're needed.
du -sh /rescue/vi /rescue/vi
12M
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I learned to work with vi/vim when I had to manipulate files on servers through a telnet/ssh connection
Written by Claude Code, maybe vibe-coded (Score:4, Informative)
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The GitHub commit history lists Claude Code [github.com] as co-author on all changes. Are you glad Notepad++ finally works on a Mac or concerned about "vibe coding"?
Claude is probably better at Debugging.
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Re: Written by Claude Code, maybe vibe-coded (Score:2)
It does not work without a human prompt. It's a productivity tool. A very helpful one. Until you run out of quota on Anthropic. I have been alternating between Claude code on the $20 plan and Claude code with qwen3.6 locally. Much slower locally, but still faster than what I would be able to write and test alone without the tool.
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That might be, because the real author can not use git, and tells Claude to do the commits.
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It is possible to use AI assisted coding tools like claude code and also not vibe code. Vibe coding assumes no code reviews, no actual developers crafting the prompts, reviewing the plans, implementing controls on AI, and working with it to execute changes.
I'm not saying this wasn't vibe coded, but I have no concerns with engineers who use claude code to get work done. It's a new skill and it will take time for developers and engineers to develop the skillset to be successfull at it, but the ones who don't
MacOS has TextEdit, been there for years (Score:2)
Re:MacOS has TextEdit, been there for years (Score:4, Interesting)
Is Notepad++ suppose to, be better ?
There are a number of things Notepad++ does that TextEdit does not, because whereas TextEdit is a rich text editor, Notepad++ is more like the editor from a fully-featured IDE. Folks can chime in on their own favorite features, but here are some off the top of my head:
* Syntax highlighting [wikipedia.org]: if you open a code file (e.g., *.cpp, *.py, *.json) NP++ will distinguish syntax and other code-like elements and color them accordingly.
* Code folding [wikipedia.org]: if you open a code file, NP++ can detect blocks (stuff between braces, levels of indentation, etc.) and allow those block to be "collapsed" or expanded for easier viewing.
* More capable find and replace: the find tool in NP++ can not only search for words, but also use wildcards (*), look for non-printing characters (\r, \n, \t, etc.), or even use regex expressions.
* Multiple cursor: With a few keyboard+mouse strokes, you can have several cursors, then have keyboard commands (left/right, Ctrl+left/right, Shift+left/right, cut/copy/paste, etc.) happen at many places simultaneously.
* Macros
* A decent-sized community of plug-ins
At least it knows that Makefiles need tabs :) (Score:3, Interesting)
All alternatives are good alternatives (Score:1)
Or at least more or less. But less is more. /usr/bin/more /usr/bin/more /usr/bin/less /usr/bin/less
$ md5sum
07ace46a9736574403d8fa8a4096b228
$ md5sum
07ace46a9736574403d8fa8a4096b228
But anyway, I use TextMate and Emacs on Mac and Notepad++ on Windows. I also use Pulsar and Obsidian across Win, Mac and Linux.
I welcome Notepad++ to MacOS and will probably try it out, but for me, Notepad++ is a bit long in the tooth, even on Windows.
Linux (Score:2)
If it is available for Mac do we also get it for Linux hten?