notepad-plus-plus / notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus

[Feature request] Multiline editor for Find & replace

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#12,834 4 comments 4 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
C++
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Description

Description of the Issue

Entering multiline find & replace patterns is very tedious because user has to use \r\n characters to enter new lines and it is hard to make oneself oriented in the sear/replace pattern. Multiline editor for Find & replace to ease entering multiline find & replace was nicely implemented in jEdit when user can just copy & paste multiline text to the find box (which is displayed as multiline) and do the same for replace pattern. User does not need to use escape sequences for most common characters such as Tab, NewLine and Line Feed characters.

Expected Behavior

Extend the find and replace box to be multiline and display multiline entries
Enter special characters such as Tab, New Line/Linefeed using Ctrl+, e.g. Ctrl+Enter adds new line character.

Actual Behavior

Currently, find and replaces patterns are displayed on a single line; user needs to use escape sequences for characters like \n\r\t and others.

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Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No source file or test is identified in the issue; start by locating the Find and Replace UI entry point in the Notepad++ codebase. Done means both find and replace fields display and accept multiline text, with Ctrl+Enter inserting a newline and common special characters no longer requiring escape sequences.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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