notepad++ is great, though they have a dubious habit of dumping political messages on releases.

I don't have any use for Notepad++, but reading about this makes me wish I did:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad%2B%2B#Political_messag...

The possibility of software being a personal, creative, expressive endeavor (which often includes politics), something I believed in back when I was in university twenty years ago, is a feeling that's receded deeply into the past. That might be as much about me as it is about the world, but I miss it.

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bigstrat2003 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think that different people want different things. It seems to me like these days the idea of software being a personal expression is in vogue more than not, but there are always going to be those who want that and those who don't.

That said, if software is a personal creative expression, one must be prepared for the possibility that some people aren't going to like what one has to say. Often when the politics angle comes up with Notepad++, people will say "it's his software project, he has the right to put in political messages if he wants" as if that somehow compels people to be ok with the political messages. The author certainly has the right to use Notepad++ as a platform for his political opinions, and I would never dream of saying otherwise. I don't want him to go to jail, or get fired by his employer, or anything like that. But I similarly have the right to decide that I don't want to see his political opinions and use another piece of software. You pick up both ends of the stick, as the old saying says.

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pharrington 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Where is the place you'd like to see someone say "Declare variables, not war"?

	▲	bigstrat2003 4 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		On their blog I guess? Not in my text editor, that's for sure. I'm busy trying to get work done; I neither have time for nor want to hear about the author's opinions on current events.

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NooneAtAll3 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

reading about political messaging in any software should make you AVOID it, not "wishing to have it"

the moment software stops being neutral, it becomes a target

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wk_end 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I guess this is true in a professional context - you don't want your user's or company's data somehow becoming compromised because of your choice of text editor.

But, at the same time, that's exactly the sort of thinking that's killed off that feeling I'm sentimental for. As a free human being, I don't want to live in fear of expressing my political views; and as someone who wants to view the software I make as a form of art or expression, I don't want to be afraid to express my political views through my software either. Should a writer avoid being political for fear of becoming a target? For fear of their books or readers becoming a target?

	▲	NooneAtAll3 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		as a free human being, you can do whatever as a program that tries to be used by others - stay in your lane, you are not an opinion cesspool, you are here to do work and let others do it too

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reactordev 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sublime is good too without the political rhetoric. It boggles my mind that windows users refuse the ways of vim.

	▲	vunderba 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Was hoping to see Sublime mentioned here. Super stable and available for nearly everything (Windows, Linux, Mac).

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7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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throw4re2ef 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I remember a few years back there was an update where it would actually type the political message when you created a new text document. I abandoned it ever since.

The creator is also very selective about the type of politics he supports.

	▲	zzrrt 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> The creator is also very selective about the type of politics he supports. Why would someone express political messages without being selective? It’s understandable not wanting overt politics in your software, but this line is odd.

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BuckRogers 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

And they were running on such a shoestring deployment that N++ was hacked by the Chinese last year. I'd stick with VS Code.