okay, but wouldn't the best solution be to simply release an official macOS port? nowadays it would be cheaper than paying a lawyer to write a letter haha
okay, but wouldn't the best solution be to simply release an official macOS port? nowadays it would be cheaper than paying a lawyer to write a letter haha
Good lord, why are users of free software always act so entitled towards developers they have paid not a single cent to?
Just "simply" port your native GUI application to a completely different platform and make sure everything works as intended. No biggie! At least donate a couple hundred dollars to the developer so he can afford to run a couple of Claudes before you start asking for things.
He might not have a Mac to test it on or care to code it. It’s open source, they work on what they want after all they don’t get paid. If he was donated a Mac and enough money in sure he might look into it
It's not just that, Notepad++ is built around Win32 APIs and is designed for Windows. He's got some non-portable optimizations baked in. At its core, Notepad++ is just another Scintilla wrapper (like SciTE or Textadept) but it's targeted at and optimized for Windows. There will not be a Mac or Linux port.
If you want an editor with the same core as Notepad++, but fewer batteries included and more extensibility, Textadept is worth a look.
I use Notepad++ on WINE and it works very well, doubtless it could be done on macOS too.
why though it is open source the only problem the original dev has is that they are using his name and trademark they could name it something else and it will be okay.
If they'd named it something else, it would indeed be OK. We wouldn't be here having this conversation if that were a thing that had happened.
When there are no trademark issues then there are no trademark issues to discuss.
But they haven't named it something else, so here we are talking about the trademark issues that this raises.
Surely, this is a troll reply, but it made me think about this Lord of Rings meme/quote:
i don't know, we're having this conversation because a superfan of notepad++ vibecoded his way into a macOS port. there's a lot of demand for it seemingly.
as for the other commenters, i agree that all kinds of curmudgeon behavior from open source maintainers is valid. many personalities are valid. but it doesn't mean writing legal letters is a good idea, it's winning the battle to lose the war.
But by doing that he would need to maintain more code, which is unreasonable if it isn't something he wants.
And someone using the Notepad++ brand without his consent isn't cool, as if something goes wrong, people might assume that the original Notepad++ author is behind it, tarnishing his reputation.
If he doesn't want to make a macOS version that's on him, other people can fork it and make their own versions if they want, just make it obvious it's not from the original dev.