Papyrus Plugin for Notepad++

This plugin adds support for Bethesda's Papyrus scripting language to Notepad++. It provides syntax highlighting with automatic recognition of class names/functions/properties, supports keywords matching and hyperlinks to referenced scripts. It also comes with a compiler that can provide compilation errors in a separate list window, as well as inline annotation and indication where errors are reported, plus anonymization of compiled .pex files.

This plugin is derived from the original PapyrusPlusPlus plugin created by tschilkroete, with many bug fixes, enhancements, and made to work with the latest Notepad++ release.

Changes from original work

Bug fixes

• [Lexer] Syntax highlighting with lexer now properly works with the latest Notepad++ version, so you no longer need to use a separate user-defined language XML, which defeats the purpose of a lexer.
• [Compiler] Can now handle huge compilation error list (this usually happens when a referenced script has errors or referenced script source does not exist), so that status message no longer gets stuck at "Compiling...".
• [Compiler] In error list window, clicking on an error from a file that has not been opened yet will now correctly move cursor to the error line.
• [Compiler] Any exceptions while trying to compile the script are now properly shown to user (exceptions likely won't happen anyway).
• [Lexer] Operators are now correctly styled with defined Operator style, instead of the wrong Type style.
• [Lexer] Proper syntax highlighting with strings that contain double quote escapes.
• [Lexer] Proper syntax highlighting with integer literals that start with minus sign.
• [Lexer] Proper syntax highlighting with float literals that contain decimal point.
• [Lexer] Proper syntax highlighting with comments where "/" appears before/after ";" with spaces in between.
• [Lexer] Word "property" in comments is now correctly excluded from property handling.
• [Lexer] Correctly detect properties in edge cases like copying property lines and then editing.
• [Lexer] White spaces are now styled correctly.
• [Compiler] Only run compiler if active file is using Papyrus Script lexer. Configurable behavior, default on.
• [Compiler] Properly release process handle after compilation.

Improvements

• [Lexer] Upgrade to support Scintilla's ILexer5.
• [Lexer] Support folding on properties. Original plugin likely omitted properties from folding since it could not exclude those that have definitions done in a single line.
• [Lexer] Support "folding in code, middle" so that Else and ElseIf can be folded as well. Configurable behavior, default on.
• [Compiler] Compilation error list window will be hidden when starting a new compilation.
• [Compiler] Compilation error list window will not contain duplicate error messages.
• [Compiler] Support more compilation flags:
  • -optimize (all games)
  • -release and -final (Fallout 4)
• [Compiler] Handle the rare compilation error cases with "-op" flag when errors are reported on .pas files.
• [Compiler] Handle generic compilation errors that are not reported on source files or .pas files, e.g. when one of the import directories is invalid.
• [Lexer] Separate the list of Papyrus language defined keywords into 2, so Parent/Self/True/False/None can be styled differently.
• [Compiler] Status bar shows the game name for current Papyrus script file.
• [Compiler] Status bar shows compiling status if switching to another file and back while compiling.
• [Compiler] When compilation succeeds or fails, status bar shows the file name alongside result message, if current file window is not the same as the one that got compiled.
• [Lexer] Slightly better performance in syntax highlighting with property name caching, especially with big script files.
• [Lexer] In addition, class name caching can be turned on in Settings menu. However, there is a caveat. See configuration guide for details. Configurable behavior, default off.
• [Settings] No more forced setup on startup.
• [Settings] Revamped UI with many more settings now configurable.

New features

• [Compiler] Anonymize compiled .pex file. In case you are not aware, when you use PapyrusCompiler to compile any script your user account and machine name are stored inside the generated .pex file, so it's a big privacy concern.
• [Annotator] Show annotation below error lines, and/or show indications where errors are. Configurable behavior, default on.
• [Compiler] Skyrim SE/AE and Fallout 4 support.
• [Compiler] Auto detection of game/compiler settings to be used based on source script file location.
• [Lexer] Support of new Papyrus syntax/keywords of Fallout 4.
• [Lexer] Syntax highlighting of function names.
• [Lexer] Class names can be styled as links to open the script files. FO4's namespace support is included. Configurable behavior, default on (Ctrl + double click).
• [Lexer] Hover support on properties.
• [Matcher] Highlight on matching keywords.
• [Matcher] Go to matching keyword.
• [UI] A new Advanced submenu with:
  • Show langID - can be used to find out internal langID assigned to Papyrus Script lexer, which is useful if you need to manually configure Notepad++'s functionList feature.
  • Install auto completion support - provides auto-completion support for functions defined in base game, SKSE, and even SkyUI.
  • Install function list support - allows using View -> Function List menu to show all defined functions in a Papyrus script file.
• [UI] Dark mode support.

Download

Get the latest release from here.

Installation

Please find installation guide here.

WARNING:

• Do not install versions prior to v0.3.0 if you are using Notepad++ v8.3+.
• Do not install v0.3.0+ if you are using a Notepad++ version prior to v8.3.

Configuration

Please find configuration guide here.

Building

The project comes with the needed Scintilla/Lexilla and Notepad++ files for building. It also references GSL and TinyXML2 as submodules, which means if you clone the repository, you should specify --recurse-submodules to also get these modules in your local repository.

• To build the project in Visual Studio 2022, just open the solution file in VS2022 and build.

• For those who use Visual Studio Code, a .vscode folder is provided at top level, with tasks defined and the default build task uses MSBuild to generate the Release|x64 output. Note, you need to download and install Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022 from this page. Make sure to include Desktop development with C++ workload during installation.

  Launch VSCode from Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022 by running "code ." from src directory, so that environment needed by MSBuild is set up properly.

• The third option is cmake. A CMakeLists.txt file is provided in src directory. It is recommended to use a separate build directory at top level. For example, "cmake -S src -B build" creates a build directory at top level and prepares the build environment, then, "cmake --build build --config Release" builds the project in release mode.

Code Structure

├── .github - GitHub related files
│   └── workflows - GitHub action workflows
├── .vscode - configuration files for VS Code
├── dist - output folder, used by build script to create the release package
│   ├── extras - extra configuration files that can be used in Notepad++
│   │   ├── autoCompletion - auto completion configuration file for Papyrus scripts
│   │   ├── functionList - function list configuration file for Papyrus scripts
│   │   └── userDefineLangs - user-defined Papyrus language instead of this plugin's lexer
│   └── themes - lexer configuration files for specific themes
│       └── DarkModeDefault - lexer configuration file for Dark Mode
└── src - source code
    ├── external - source files from external projects (may be modified)
    │   ├── gsl - references GSL as submodule
    │   ├── lexilla - Lexilla source files
    │   ├── npp - Notepad++ source files
    │   ├── scintilla - Scintilla source files
    │   ├── tinyxml2 - references TinyXML2 as submodule
    │   └── XMessageBox - adopted and modified XMessageBox to provide dark mode support
    └── Plugin - source files of this plugin
        ├── Common - common definitions and utilities shared by all modules
        ├── CompilationErrorHandling - show/annotate compilation errors
        ├── Compiler - invoke Papyrus compiler in a separate thread
        ├── Lexer - Papyrus script lexer that provides syntax highlighting
        ├── KeywordMatcher - matching keywords highlighter
        ├── Settings - read/write Papyrus.ini and provide configuration support to other modules
        └── UI - other UI dialogs, such as About dialog

Disclaimer

Both original work and this plugin are licensed under GPL v3, so make sure you read and understand it if you are creating derived work. Most importantly, you cannot modify the code and only publish binary output without making the modified code also publicly available.