History

A wide sweep of fixes and small improvements after the Unicode release.

• Settings saved to a writable location — user tools, macros, and color schemes now save to your per-user AppData folder (and report failures) instead of the read-only install directory. Macro and color-scheme files use .macros / .colors extensions.
• Hardened expression evaluator — fixes stack overruns and uninitialized reads on very long tokens, and reports errors instead of returning a truncated or garbage value.
• Encoding correctness — Insert File decodes with the file’s own encoding; the workspace saves as UTF-8 (Korean paths survive); print preview no longer garbles CJK with a Latin printer font; Capture Output converts child-process I/O through the OEM code page.
• Robust long lines and long paths — the maximum line length is guarded on every edit path, MAX_PATH-length paths are handled in the directory panel and file operations, and over-long tokens no longer leak between fields in the .prj/.key/.dic readers.
• FTP fixes — the socket FTP client works under Unicode, downloads from FileZilla servers, and sizes its dialog correctly.
• Editor niceties — Save is a no-op when nothing changed; a read-only file prompts before Save As; default bracket pairs work even without a syntax spec; the Summary dialog and status bar count logical characters (not UTF-16 code units); Find in Files no longer hangs on large files; and the output window’s line cap is raised with truncation reporting.
• Fixes a startup crash caused by a stale workspace entry.

• Column mode on a real display grid — block edges snap to display-column boundaries, and the block counts cells, not characters, so wide (CJK) characters line up correctly.
• Hangul in column blocks — typing into a column block now enters text on every row, including double-width characters.
• Comment a column block with /* */ instead of // at column 0, where the language supports it.
• The status bar now makes clear which coordinate (column vs. character) it is showing.
• Fixes a print-preview resize guard.

Two same-day releases focused on speed and the internals behind it.

• Block file reading — files are read in blocks instead of one read-and-seek per line.
• On-demand row layout — screen rows are laid out as you scroll rather than all at once when a file opens.
• Character-width cache — each character is measured once instead of every word every time, noticeably speeding up word wrap and drawing.
• Array-based line container — the document’s lines moved from a linked list to an array (CLineList) that behaves the same but scales far better on large files.
• Batched writes, a table-driven tokenizer, fewer progress-bar repaints, and word-wrap rows spliced in as a batch.

Crimson Editor is now a true Unicode (_UNICODE) build. Earlier versions stored text as MBCS and could read and write UTF-8; 3.90 rebuilds the whole editor around wide characters.

• Full _UNICODE build — the entire codebase migrated from MBCS to wide characters, and the old double-byte (DBCS) code paths are gone.
• Surrogate pairs count as one character — characters outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (emoji, rare CJK) move, select, and delete as a single unit.
• East Asian Width–aware layout — CJK glyphs get correct widths under fixed-pitch fonts.
• UTF-8 by default — new documents are created as UTF-8 (no BOM). Regular expressions, IME input, and the clipboard (CF_UNICODETEXT) are all Unicode-aware now.
• Modern default fonts — bundles the D2Coding font and refreshes the default font choices, with some Unicode-era UI polish.

The next public release after 3.81, rolling up a round of fixes and cleanups.

• Better UTF-8 detection — files saved as UTF-8 without a byte-order mark are now recognized automatically on open, using a larger sample of the file’s contents.
• High-DPI layout fix — the editor now ships DPI-unaware, which fixes dialog and toolbar layout on displays scaled above 100%.
• Per-edition configuration — the single cedt.conf is split into cedt_kr.conf and cedt_us.conf, so the Korean and English editions keep their own settings.
• Preferences cleanup — tidied category labels (e.g. Directory → Directories) and removed the empty Output Window page from the category tree.
• Updated Help menu — Visit Homepage, Sponsoring, and Feedback now point at the current site (crimsoneditor.com) and the GitHub issue tracker, and Help ▸ Topics opens the online documentation at crimsoneditor.com/docs.
• Cleaner installer upgrades — the installer unregisters the previous ShellExt.dll before overwriting it, so the Explorer “Edit with Crimson Editor” integration updates reliably.

The first new release since 3.72 (2008). The 1999–2005 source was modernized for current Windows without changing what the editor is — same look, same features, now a clean 64-bit build.

• 64-bit (x64) build — full port from the original Win32 code; pointer-truncation and size_t issues fixed across the codebase, all four build configurations compile warning-free.
• Visual Studio 2026 (v145 toolset) — migrated from the original VC6 project files (.dsp/.dsw) to a modern .sln/.vcxproj. The legacy VC6 build is preserved on the cedt371-original branch.
• New Inno Setup installer (cedt-381-setup.exe) — replaces the old NSIS installer, bundles the Visual C++ x64 runtime, installs to Program Files, and optionally adds an “Edit with Crimson Editor” entry to the Explorer right-click menu.
• Both editions in one installer — Korean and English, selectable at install time.
• Reorganized source tree — the previously flat ~180-file tree is split into src/{include, core, app, doc, view, frame, panels, dialogs, util, network}.
• Unit tests — a new Google Test suite (60 tests across 12 suites) covering the core algorithm and data-container modules.
• Redesigned application icon.

• bug fixed: DEL key deletes directory item when project item is selected.
• bug fixed: ftp file transfer error when the file size is multiple of 512 bytes.
• bug fixed: search & replace the beginning of line crashes Crimson Editor.
• bug fixed: find with ‘Match whole word’ considers a ’_’ as not part of a word.
• bug fixed: comment color when typing the word ‘remove’ in ASP document.
• bug fixed: screen resolution problem using dual monitor.
• bug fixed: backup file creation failed in UNC path.
• bug fixed: abnormal caret movement after print preview.
• bug fixed: search next selected text in column mode.
• bug fixed: open last working remote file without saving password.
• bug fixed: CWD now follows ‘File Open’ dialog.
• bug fixed: problem typing Se-Bul-Sik Korean characters.
• bug fixed: loses project workspace when user cancel program termination.
• bug fixed: sharing violation when try to open a file already in use.
• bug fixed: abnormal command line execution ‘C:\some path>cedt \autoexec.bat’.
• Drag and Drop text editing.
• Reduced memory footprint. (50%) - but still uses lots of memory
• Supports Unicode and UTF-8 encoding.
• Increased maximum number of characters in a single line. (4096->32768)
• Splitter Window, New Window.
• Drive list in directory window refreshes on drop down.
• Saves project workspace whenever there is a change in project tree.
• Saves folding status of project categories.
• [Shell Execute] right click menu for files listed in a project.
• Project category names are editable now.
• User Tool path and argument recognize shell variables. (variable expansion)
• Predefined column mode font when screen font is not a fixed size font.
• Saves workspace windows placement.
• Follows symbolic links in Open Remote dialog.
• Increased the number of ftp server accounts. (10->16)
• Added [Replace All] in ‘Replace This Occurrence’ box. (Yes/No/All/Once/Stop)
• F3, Shift+F3 skips current search occurrence during Search and Replace.
• Search wraps at end of file. (optional)
• Cedt-type document icon changed.
• Third quotation mark definition in language specification.
• Accurate variable detection logic. (“$VARIABLEENCLOSEDBY={}”)
• Variable highlight in constant string. (in PHP, Perl, Shell, …)
• Added short-cuts in all popup menu items.
• Hot keys changed. - Scroll Screen Center (F5), Top (Shift+F5)
• Hot keys changed. - Close Window (Ctrl+W), Select Word (Ctrl+D)
• Hot keys changed. - Lower Case (Ctrl+L), Invert Case (Ctrl+Shift+L)
• New hot keys. - Next Pane (F6), Prev Pane (Shift+F6)

• bug fixed: error in upgrading shell extension dll during installation
• bug fixed: crash when print preview without a printer
• bug fixed: wrong line numbers on the printout
• bug fixed: weird operation with escape character + TAB character
• bug fixed: save hidden, system files with empty contents
• support project management
• second instance does not reload last working files
• last working files include remote files
• scroll screen to position caret to top or center (F5, F6)
• reserves caret position when reload a file
• save user defined color schemes
• save & load different sets of User Tools
• handles European accented characters
• enhanced safety and strict error checking on FTP work
• faster screen drawing dealing with big text files
• Home key goes to first position (optional)
• backup remote files in local disk drive
• checks existence of user tool executables
• input box for output window to send user inputs
• remembers search directory in Find in Files and Open Project

• bug fixed: ‘Save As Remote’ dialog box
• bug fixed: ‘Allow multiple instances’ option in preferences dialog box

• bug fixed: ‘Add Crimson Editor to right mouse button of Window Explorer’
• bug fixed: document switching Ctrl+PgUp & Ctrl+PgDn
• column mode editing (mode change: Alt+C)
• FTP transfer progress can be canceled by user
• multiple file types in ‘Find in Files’
• use spaces in place of tab option in Preferences
• upgraded help topics
• search functions can be used in macro recording
• enhanced caret movement hot keys (Alt+Home, Alt+End)

• bug fixed: file modification indicator when undo or redo is executed
• bug fixed: ‘Save All’ saves only changed files
• bug fixed: save before exit for remote files
• bug fixed: bug related to read only files
• bug fixed: macro recording (selection, convert case)
• bug fixed: tabs to spaces, spaces to tabs
• regular expression in search & replace
• look in sub-folders in ‘Find in Files’
• replace in all open files
• select text with shift+click
• reload last working files on startup
• remember last explored directory
• syntax highlighting types
• different color assignment in active line
• highlight pairs when caret is in right of the bracket
• range highlight (in ASP, PHP, JSP files)
• manage file type association
• enriched English dictionary (around 100000 words included)
• date functions in calculator
• file operations in directory window
• sync directory window to the current file
• using NSIS install shield (by courtesy of Nullsoft)

• bug fixed: variable highlighting problem in PHP, Perl, Bash
• bug fixed: printing spaces (space width mismatch)
• delete word (Ctrl+Del), delete prev word (Ctrl+Back)
• delete to end of line (Ctrl+Shift+Del)
• capture output (send input to running process + kill current running process)
• color selection dialog box changed
• copy current line when nothing is selected
• color information is saved in different file from the configuration file
• backup files (with options)
• right mouse button in Window Explorer (complete implementation)
• built-in calculator (Evaluate Line)

• bug fixed: critical problem related to Windows resource
• option to convert tabs to spaces before saving
• option to remove trailing white spaces before saving
• option to show tab characters & line break
• highlight variables that begin with special characters (bash, perl, php)
• highlight hexa-decimal numbers begin with special character
• it may support Japanese IME (I believe)

• bug fixed: Alt+Tab while composing double byte
• bug fixed: unordinary ‘File not File’ message box
• bug fixed: delete at the end of line while ‘Word Wrap’ turned on
• bug fixed: dos command line parameter including ’.’ and ’..’
• support overwrite mode
• hot key assignment for ‘User Tools’ and ‘Macros’
• ‘Close on exit’ option in ‘User Tools’ (launch.exe)
• support WinHelp (.hlp) and HtmlHelp (.chm) files in ‘User Tools’
• ‘Output Window’ and ‘Find in Files’ (Ctrl+Shift+F)
• custom FTP client (‘Save password’ option, support more FTP servers)
• ‘Open Template’ (Alt+O)
• ‘Directory Window’ menu and toolbar
• and a lot of small changes…

• divide by zero bug fixed (more strict user configuration file check)
• reload on remote file bug fixed
• complex syntax highlighting (check keyword effect range)
• dos command to run Crimson Editor “cedt.exe *.c”
• command line option “cedt.exe /L:33 test.h”
• half page scrolling shortcut (Alt+Page Up, Alt+Page Down)
• move caret to paragraph begin or paragraph end shortcut (Alt+Home, Alt+End)
• ‘Add Crimson Editor to right mouse button’ option
• ‘Print syntax highlight’ option
• ‘Create new document on startup’ option
• ‘Save remote files in Unix format’ option

• upgrade bug fixed

• home-made GetLongPathName() function
• editable file types (Tools > Preferences > Files > Filters)
• default language specification
• local help pages are included in distribution zip file
• recovery from corrupt configuration file (cedt.cfg)
• encoded FTP password in Open Remote
• use long file name in User Tools (JAVA source compile)
• second line comment delimiter can be specified for each programming language
• effective range for keywords can be limited (HTML, ASP, PHP, JSP)

• ‘Working Directory’ in Tools > Preference > Files
• ‘Save files in Unix format’ option in Tools > Preference > Files
• new edit commands (Edit > Change Case)
• new search commands (Search > Advanced)
• new toolbar buttons (Open Remote, Directory Window)
• menu items in Tools menu and Macros menu are rearranged
• menu items in Window menu changed (Last Visited, Next Window, Prev Window)

• line number bug fixed.
• use lesser window resources. (became faster than before)

• ‘Directory Window’ attached to the left side of Mainframe
• added ‘Open Remote’ function
• added ‘Pairs Matching’ feature
• ‘Copy & Paste’ bug fixed
• updated user interface

• do not use DDE to initialize (faster start up)
• wheel mouse support.
• ‘Whole Word Only’ option in Find & Replace
• added context menu on file selection tab
• reserve caret position scrolling up & down.
• revised text selection routine

• ‘Save As’ bug fixed
• added new menu item in Help menu