Win32Pad - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: What is Win32Pad?
A: Win32Pad is my Notepad replacement. I think that default notepad sucks. After trying to find a small/quick/efficient notepad replacement I decided to write my own. Most of the replacements that I tried were somewhere from 100k executables going to several megs. Some of them were overkill for simple editing jobs and quick hacks that I tend to do. I found a notepad replacement that seemed to provide a decent number of features, but it became shareware (also the size of executable was around 400k). I was looking for a small editor ( with standard icons) that would let me quickly view or edit a file.
Q: Is it Free?
A: It's FREEWARE. Which means that you are allowed to use it for personal or commercial purposes (without selling it of course). You are also allowed to give the program to your friends. You are NOT allowed to change the program in any way. If you redistribute the program, please make sure that there is a link to my website (this way people will be able to get a fresh version if one is available).
Q: How come Win32Pad is so small?
A: I used C and Win32 API to develop Win32Pad. I tried to keep the dependency list as small as possible and use the only DLLs that are already available in Windows. I didn't use any specific libraries like MFC (which would be an overkill for win32pad) for various personal reasons aside from the fact that it significantly increases the size of the executable.
Q: What compiler are you using?
A: I just switched from egcs-1.1.2 to the latest stable gcc-2.95.2 (MINGW). (Note:This is a port of the Unix gcc compiler with additional support for compiling Windows native executables).
Q: Why are you using RichEdit control and why do I need riched20.dll?
A: Most of Win 9x users know that when you open 65k file in notepad it will automatically start wordpad since it can't handle files larger than 32k. Windows NT users might not even know that such a problem exists on Win 9x machines. Rich Edit is an enhanced edit control that is able to handle big files and also has a rich amount of editing options and features. When I started development I had 2 choices. I could use an older riched32.dll (ver 1.0) or riched20.dll (former 2.0 and now 3.0). I chose the later since it contains a richer set of editing options and is being actively maintained. Some of the recent versions of riched20.dll provide a number of bugfixes to some of the issues that have been found in previous versions. Instead of writing workarounds for various "broken" riched20.dll implementations I decided to keep the code small and stick with recent versions. This DLL is actively used by various applications, so the probability of it being on your system is almost certain (esp. Since M$ uses it). RichEdit control is an active part of MS Office and IE. So in most cases you should be fine. This control also lets me keep the code small without having to rewrite the editing functionality by myself. If you are a fellow developer who is using RichEdit control, I suggest that you also start using the latest version of the DLL without having to figure out why something doesn't simply work as documented. There are a number of sites that provide sufficient examples and documentation on RichEdit control.
Q: Where can I find out more information on doing development with Rich Edit Control?
A: There are many sites that have various examples that utilize RichEdit control. Some of them are:
MSDN Library - provides documentation to some of the Rich Edit controls API.
Q: I downloaded your recent version of Win32Pad and Highlight URLs doesn't work anymore?
A: You should update your riched20.dll to a more recent version. You can find a link to a recent version of riched20.dll on the Download page.
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