vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) (03/08/88)
I have frequently been in the position of wanting to edit data files, either binary or text. The files have no carriage returns or line feeds, and can have characters on the full 255 range. It seems that the tools available to me divide into two groups. The first are text editors (I've used MicroEmacs, Brief, Wordstar, Norton Editor) which choke and gag on these files, and when they can take them (e.g. Norton Editor) I have physical lines scrolling way the hell off the screen. The second class are hex editors (e.g. Norton Utilities, PC Tools, a PD program called FM) which allow hex and decimal editting, and wrap nicely into 20 or so character lines, but don't allow inserting, deleting, search, mark, cut, copy, etc. Any suggestions? O----------------------------------------------------------------------> | Cliff Joslyn, Cybernetician (sanity regained) | Systems Science Department, SUNY Binghamton, Binghamton, NY | vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .
kevinc@auvax.UUCP (Kevin Barry Crocker) (03/09/88)
In article <903@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>, vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) writes: > > I have frequently been in the position of wanting to edit data files, > either binary or text. The files have no carriage returns or line > feeds, and can have characters on the full 255 range. > > It seems that the tools available to me divide into two groups. The > first are text editors (I've used MicroEmacs, Brief, Wordstar, Norton > Editor) which choke and gag on these files, and when they can take them > (e.g. Norton Editor) I have physical lines scrolling way the hell off > the screen. > > The second class are hex editors (e.g. Norton Utilities, PC Tools, a PD > program called FM) which allow hex and decimal editting, and wrap nicely > into 20 or so character lines, but don't allow inserting, deleting, > search, mark, cut, copy, etc. > > Any suggestions? > > O----------------------------------------------------------------------> > | Cliff Joslyn, Cybernetician (sanity regained) > | Systems Science Department, SUNY Binghamton, Binghamton, NY > | vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu > V All the world is biscuit shaped. . . Cliff, one editor that I saw a while back was the Professional Editor by SSI (the Wordperfect folks). As a matter of fact I tend to photocopy the title pages of software that I find useful so that when I can afford them I go back and buy them. Wait a minute - a friend has a copy of this thing just let me phone him ............... .. . Ah Ah! P-Edit Professional Program Editor SSI Software (I think these are the WordPerfect folks now) Orem, Utah Full screen editing no program limit on file size cut and paste macros special characters on-line help global search and replace you can display 1-255 characters in a variety of ways Min mem 40Kb Max mem used 167Kb number of pages per file 200 (pages are of arbitrary length) number of lines per page 65,535 number of characters per line 63,400 number of characters per display 63,400 can edit binary file (start in binary mode with command line parameter /b) You know, this sounds great amybe I'll give them a call myself. Hope this helps ihnp4!alberta!auvax!kevinc (Kevin Crocker Athabasca University) Do our employers have opinions or is that what we get paid for!
psc@lznv.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (03/12/88)
< If you lined all the news readers up end-to-end, they'd be easier to shoot. > In article <903@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>, vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) writes: > I have frequently been in the position of wanting to edit data files, > either binary or text. The files have no carriage returns or line > feeds, and can have characters on the full 255 range. > > It seems that the tools available to me divide into two groups. The > first are text editors (I've used MicroEmacs, Brief, Wordstar, Norton > Editor) which choke and gag on these files, and when they can take them > (e.g. Norton Editor) I have physical lines scrolling way the hell off > the screen. PC-Write can edit just about anything, including binary files with unlimited line lengths and no terminal ^Z. However, it treats some of the early control characters as font change codes (no big deal, but it does change color after those codes); it doesn't handle individual carriage returns and line feeds as gracefully as you'd like; and the long "lines" are hard to edit. > The second class are hex editors (e.g. Norton Utilities, PC Tools, a PD > program called FM) which allow hex and decimal editting, and wrap nicely > into 20 or so character lines, but don't allow inserting, deleting, > search, mark, cut, copy, etc. PC Tools Deluxe has a "word processor" that can do those things; I don't know if it can handle binary files. (Quite possibly not, since I think it might have automatic reformatting.) The View/Edit function has both hex and Ascii views in Deluxe. (Caveat user: I've been able to hang my PC by Viewing a Smalltalk/V image. No problems with .EXEs or other large binary files.) I don't know if PC Tools Deluxe View/Edit has a search function. You could always use DEBUG. Bear in mind that many binary files have either fixed length or length prefixed records. Inserting, deleting, or even moving arbitrary data in such files will make those files unreadable by their applications. > Cliff Joslyn, vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu > | Systems Science Department, SUNY Binghamton, Binghamton, NY -Paul S. R. Chisholm, {ihnp4,cbosgd,allegra,rutgers}!mtune!lznv!psc AT&T Mail !psrchisholm, Internet psc@lznv.att.com I'm not speaking for my employer, I'm just speaking my mind.
pechter@dasys1.UUCP (Bill Pechter) (03/17/88)
PC-Tools Delux has a binary editor with search function as well as a very nice
little text editor for ascii file work. I use it for all my bat files and
most of my file patching -- leaving debug for the cases where I need to
unassemble or assemble in the code.
--
Bill Pechter {sun!hoptoad,cmcl2!phri}!dasys1!pechter
Lakewood Microsystems, 103 Governors Road, Lakewood NJ 08701
(201)370-0709 Evenings
Big Electric Cat Public Access Unix, New York, NY