If you are of the "an editor is enough" mentality then the new version of Notepad++ 7 will welcome. To be honest even if you are a committed IDE user Notepad++ is worth having installed to just edit ad-hoc files intelligently.
However, not all binaries are available in 64-bits - only a few plugins are x64 ready. Plugin authors are being encouraged to make x64 builds available.
Notepad++ v7 new features and bug-fixes:
x64 build available.
Fix the DLL Hijacking Vulnerability of previous versions (by updating NSIS to v3.0).
Auto-updater improvement: periodical check can be disable via auto-update prompt dialog.
Installer enhancement: Check if Notepad++ is running and ask the user to close it before continue.
Enhancement: add conflict detection to Shortcut Mapper.
Fix auto-completion on XML comment <!-- comment --> and <?xml> tag bug.
Fix file saving crash which can be reproduced through a specific way to save file.
Fix a crash issue while UDL's user keyword list is too long.
Fix HDPI issues for some components (task list, margins and shortcut mapper).
Add a new feature(optional) : Close the last document will quit Notepad++.
Add more Change Case variants (Title Case, Sentence case, iVERT cASE, rANdOm caSe).
Add Open file & open containing folder commands on selected file/folder name in text content.
Add Search on Internet command on selected word(s) in text content.
Add Scroll Tab Bar with mouse wheel capacity.
Add commands for moving the current file tab Forward/Backward.
Fix bug of monitoring not working for files under root.
Ruby is supported by Function List.
Added new option: Enable scrolling beyond last line.
Add an option to restore old behaviour (open files in folder) while folder being dropped.
Release 7.12 of GDB, the GNU Debugger, is now available via anonymous FTP.
GDB is a source-level debugger for Ada, C, C++, Objective-C, Pascal and many other languages. GDB can target (i.e., debug programs running on) more than a dozen different processor architectures, and GDB itself can run on most popular GNU/Linux, Unix and Microsoft Windows variants.
This version of GDB now builds with a C++ compiler by default. It is still possible to build GDB with a C compiler by simply configuring it with --disable-build-with-cxx. However, future release will require a C++ compiler to build GDB.
GDB 7.12 brings new features and improvements, including:
New target support: Andes NDS32 (nds32*-*-elf)
Rust: Debugging programs written in Rust is now supported.
Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and arrays of dynamic types.
Various Python enhancements (new convenience functions, enhanced support for breakpoints).
Various GDBserver enhancements: btrace recording without maintaining an active GDB connection. tracepoints and fast tracepoints support added on s390-linux, s390x-linux, powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux.
Open Folder is a new feature of Visual Studio 15 that lets you open and work with any folder without having to put it into a project first. Visual Studio ’15’ Preview 5 supports opening folders containing source C++ code without the need to create any solutions or projects. This makes it a lot simpler to get started with Visual Studio even if your project is not an MSBuild-based project.
The new functionality, “Open Folder”, also offers a more natural source file management as well as access to the code understanding, editing, building and debugging capabilities that Visual Studio already provides for MSBuild projects.
All you have to do is run the “Open Folder” command and select the folder you want to browse. As soon as you open the folder, Solution Explorer will immediately display the files in that folder and you can open any files in the editor. In the background, Visual Studio will start indexing the C++ sources in your folder.
You now have access to all the Visual Studio capabilities of reading and browsing C++ code (e.g. Find all references, Go to symbol, Peek definition, Semantic colorization and highlighting, Class View, Call Hierarchy, to name a few).
At the moment building from Open Folder isn't supported but it is planned for a future release.
If this wasn't enough VS now supports CMake projects, although not well enough for you to use. This is also planned for a future release.
If you are looking for a programmer present this holiday season, there is one book, or set of books, that should be top of any list... Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming.
edX is offering a 30% discount on selected courses and program bundles until December 19th. We look at AI-related certifications that could boost your resume in 2025.
