TinyRetroPad the Notepad in 2,5KB

David Plummer (Dave), the former Microsoft engineer behind the initial Task Manager of Windows, just proved that nothing added to Notepad is necessary. He created the TinyRetroPad, a fully functional Notepad clone that is about 2,5KB.

Rather than writing a text editor from scratch, Dave borrowed what was already in the operating system. This note-taking app works with RICHEDIT50W , a text editing component that has been built into Windows for years.

See more articles from iGuRu.gr when you search for news on Google.

iGuRu.gr preferred source

It is built with MASM , an x86 assembler, and then further compressed with Crinkler , a compressor designed for tiny Windows executables. The application still features a full Notepad-style menu bar, covering the familiar options of File, Edit, Format, View, and Help.

• Windows Movie Maker 6 for those who missed it

There are also useful Find and Replace tools, Go To, a font selector, word wrapping, a status bar, and functional printing support. There is also no telemetry connection that sends information to Microsoft.

TinyRetroPad didn't just appear out of nowhere. Dave built it on top of Dave's Tiny Editor (DTE), a tiny editor created by another developer that uses the same basic approach.

The code, however small, is on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 License, so anyone can take it and examine it or shrink it even further.

https://github.com/PlummersSoftwareLLC/TinyRetroPad

Of course, none of this is news if you use Linux. The GNOME Text Editor comes by default in GNOME and Kate with KDE. Neither editor requires an AI assistant or a cloud account to open a file.

Geany is another famous Linux editing application, and Notepad Next exists specifically for people who wanted an alternative to Notepad++ without needing Wine or an unofficial Snap package.

Dave simply reminded Windows friends that a word processor's only job is to edit text, and any added functionality is mostly overkill.

newsbot

Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.