XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-10, alt.comp.microsoft.windows   
   From: mariasophia@comprehension.com   
      
   Maria Sophia wrote:   
   > I have to force Notepad++ to rebuild the macro action list.   
   > 1. Open Notepad++ without shortcuts.xml in any editor.   
   > 2. Go to Macro  ->  Modify Shortcut / Delete Macro   
   > 3. Find the macro in the list & select it.   
   > 4. Click "Delete" & then close Notepad++ completely   
   > 5. Open shortcuts.xml in gVim (or any editor that is NOT Notepad++).   
   > 6. Paste the original macro back into shortcuts.xml.   
   >    Make sure the U+2060 removal block is the very first Action   
   >    in the entire macro, before any other Action.   
   > 7. Save the file making sure nothing else related is running.   
   > 8. Start Notepad++ again and re-run the grueling test.   
      
   OMG. Give me a gun. I want to shoot Scintilla's developers! :)   
   (just kidding)   
      
   But I am frustrated... as they wasted my valuable time.   
      
   I finally figured out WHY Notepad++ wasn't running the macros   
   in the order I wrote them.   
      
   I had to FORCE Notepad++ to rebuilt the entire macro from scratch!   
   Then it worked fine in the same testcase it's been failing on.   
      
   Jesus Christ. That's NOT intuitive.   
   It's only intuitive AFTER you realize Notepad++ is rewriting   
   the shortcuts.xml (keeping only your comments of what you add).   
      
   Who knew?   
   Not me.   
   Now I do!   
      
   Notepad++ does NOT execute macros directly from shortcuts.xml.   
   Once I forced it to read macros from shortcuts.xml...   
    Apostrophes are working.   
    Zero-width characters too.   
    Combining marks also.   
    Double quotes, dashes, symbols and diacritics are working.   
    So are invisible operators.   
    Soft hyphen & line separators   
    Even the Multi-word stress test is working.   
    As is the mixed-chaos jumbled test.   
      
   And yet, I changed nothing in the shortcuts.xml file!   
   Jesus Christ.   
      
   There was nothing wrong with the programming on my side.   
   It was all because Notepad++ doesn't do what we think it does.   
      
   Sheesh. Drives me nuts when I can't solve a problem.   
   As I almost never fail - so it was driving me nuts.   
      
   Mainly because I didn't understand what was happening.   
   My "logic" was fine (as I'm extremely logical).   
      
   It was simply that I was blindsided by Notepad++ changing the order.   
   Without telling me it changed the order.   
      
   By deleting the macro, the macro was finally rebuilt internally.   
   Notepad++ finally loaded the new action order   
   U+2060 finally executed first!   
      
   When Notepad++ starts, it reads shortcuts.xml ONCE.   
   It loads all macros into an INTERNAL ARRAY in memory.   
   After that, the XML file is ignored.   
      
   Only when we edit shortcuts.xml while Notepad++ is closed,   
   does the next startup load the new version... but... but...   
      
   But...   
      
   If the XML structure is malformed,   
    or the macro is outside the  block,   
    or the  block is empty,   
    or Notepad++ rewrites the file,   
    or the macro name changes,   
    or the macro is deleted and not recreated,   
      
   then Notepad++ will:   
      
    silently discard the macro,   
    rebuild the XML in its own structure,   
    and load the LAST VALID INTERNAL VERSION it had.   
      
   This looks like"Notepad++ is using an old cache.   
    But it's not a cache.   
    It's the internal macro array   
      
   Deleting the macro inside Notepad++ clears the internal array.   
      
   I'm out of energy for today, but I will try to build a   
   version 4.0 (v4p0) that Notepad++ cannot reorder internally.   
   --   
   The problem with computers is we humans are trying to beat them.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)