csd@drutx.ATT.COM (DavisCS) (02/18/89)
Many years ago (well, maybe two) I had in my hands an editor that dealt with binary files. It displayed a hex version of the contents in a window on one side of the screen and a displayable ASCII version on the opposite side. You could edit a file by making changes in either window. Anyway, I seldom used it and somewhere along the line I lost it. Can anyone help me with the name of an editor that fits that desription and a pointer to where I might pick it up again. Thanks in advance, Scott ...!att!drutx!csd
vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) (02/19/89)
I have a package called FM, File Modify, by a company called Caltech CCO. It says copyright 1985, and I have no idea how I got it. It's probably pirated. Also try Lulay Software, 503-342-8298. Their Lulay Backdoor is advertised as a decent hex editor. But, what I *really* need is a binary/hex editor with CUT AND PASTE! What a concept: they don't exist. Not even delete. "Oh, that's too dangerous" the critics cry, you could completely mung anything you're working on. Of course, that's a power tool! Now I have to write C code to delete a couple stray bites out of a data file, etc. It really grabs my gizzard. -- O----------------------------------------------------------------------> | Cliff Joslyn, Cybernetician at Large | Systems Science, SUNY Binghamton, vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .
burleigh@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (frank burleigh) (02/19/89)
In article <1951@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) writes: > >But, what I *really* need is a binary/hex editor with CUT AND PASTE! >What a concept: they don't exist. Not even delete. "Oh, that's too >dangerous" the critics cry, you could completely mung anything you're >working on. Of course, that's a power tool! Now I have to write C code >to delete a couple stray bites out of a data file, etc. It really grabs >my gizzard. You folks might try WordPerfect Corp's Program Editor, which is part of their Library 2.0 group of utilities. While PE is meant as a straight text editor, you can turn "interpret" off and load anything, including program files. I don't see any reason why you couldn't then use the normal cut/delete/paste features of the editor. It will also show the file in hex mode by turning on `reveal,' though that will only appear int he bottom half of the screen. -- Frank Burleigh USENET: ...rutgers!iuvax!silver!burleigh BITNET: BURLEIGH@IUBACS.BITNET Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
ssa@mrsvr.UUCP (Shahrooz S. Alavi) (02/19/89)
From article <10420@drutx.ATT.COM>, by csd@drutx.ATT.COM (DavisCS): > binary files. It displayed a hex version of the contents in a window on one > side of the screen and a displayable ASCII version on the opposite side. You > could edit a file by making changes in either window. Anyway, I seldom used it Norton utilities does that and much more. I am sure there are other programs also.
jwright@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu (Jim Wright) (02/19/89)
In article <653@mrsvr.UUCP> ssa@mrsvr.UUCP (Shahrooz S. Alavi) writes: }From article <10420@drutx.ATT.COM>, by csd@drutx.ATT.COM (DavisCS): }> binary files. It displayed a hex version of the contents in a window on one }> side of the screen and a displayable ASCII version on the opposite side. You }> could edit a file by making changes in either window. Anyway, I seldom used it } Norton utilities does that and much more. I am sure there are other } programs also. Norton utilities is a byte changer, not a binary editor. Close but no cigar. (I don't know how *generally* useful a binary editor is, though...)
news@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Net news owner) (02/21/89)
was that it could be used to edit itself (search and replace a string). Check out Jove, Microemacs, or one of the other emacsi at Simtel20. -- Tony Stieber astieber@csd4.milw.wisc.edu "...soon you will be writting even more bizzare programs..." Turbo C Users Guide
nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (02/21/89)
In article <1152@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> news@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Net news owner) writes:
[Line eater strikes again!]
was that it could be used to edit itself (search and replace a string).
Check out Jove, Microemacs, or one of the other emacsi at Simtel20.
I don't believe that either of the above can edit themselves. On the other
hand, Freemacs can edit any binary file less than 63K in length. Pointers
to Freemacs availability on request.
-russ
--
--russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu])
If you can, help others.
If you can't, at least don't hurt others--the Dalai Lamabobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) (02/24/89)
nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu <NELSON.89Feb20204753@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> : - was that it could be used to edit itself (search and replace a string). - Check out Jove, Microemacs, or one of the other emacsi at Simtel20. - -I don't believe that either of the above can edit themselves. On the other -hand, Freemacs can edit any binary file less than 63K in length. Pointers -to Freemacs availability on request. --russ I just tried my microemacs -- it'll start up on a binary file, but evidently stops reading as soon as it finds a 0x1a (ctrl-Z). I could recompile it with binary file modes, I guess, but it's not a priority. The distributed binaries probably also use text-mode file i/o.
allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) (02/25/89)
As quoted from <3216@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> by burleigh@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (frank burleigh): +--------------- | In article <1951@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) writes: | >But, what I *really* need is a binary/hex editor with CUT AND PASTE! | >What a concept: they don't exist. Not even delete. "Oh, that's too | >dangerous" the critics cry, you could completely mung anything you're | >working on. Of course, that's a power tool! Now I have to write C code | >to delete a couple stray bites out of a data file, etc. It really grabs | >my gizzard. | | You folks might try WordPerfect Corp's Program Editor, which is part of | their Library 2.0 group of utilities. While PE is meant as a straight | text editor, you can turn "interpret" off and load anything, including | program files. I don't see any reason why you couldn't then use the | normal cut/delete/paste features of the editor. It will also show the | file in hex mode by turning on `reveal,' though that will only appear | int he bottom half of the screen. +--------------- Gack. WP's "reveal codes" is a feature from Hell. If I want a non-WYSIWYG editor, I'll use Jove (possibly combined with some form of ?roff or TeX), thank you. There are any number of these beasts for Unix; some of them might be portable. One I have seen translates the binary file into hex and runs your favorite text editor on it; it's probably the simplest to port. Others I've seen need some form of curses, at minimum. I have one I wrote, whose file operations were deliberately kept reasonable portable. Alas, it currently exists only as a 35-page source listing, and I haven't had the inclination to try to re-key the whole bloody thing into the computer again. If nothing else, however, it indicates that it's quite possible for one or more of the existing-in-machine-readable-form binary editors from Unix to be portable to DOS. ++Brandon -- Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc allbery@ncoast.org uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery ncoast!allbery@hal.cwru.edu Send comp.sources.misc submissions to comp-sources-misc@<backbone> NCoast Public Access UN*X - (216) 781-6201, 300/1200/2400 baud, login: makeuser
burleigh@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (frank burleigh) (02/25/89)
In article <13413@ncoast.ORG> allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) writes: >As quoted from <3216@silver.bacs.indiana.edu> by burleigh@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (frank burleigh): >| You folks might try WordPerfect Corp's Program Editor, which is part of >| their Library 2.0 group of utilities. While PE is meant as a straight > >Gack. WP's "reveal codes" is a feature from Hell. If I want a non-WYSIWYG >editor, I'll use Jove (possibly combined with some form of ?roff or TeX), >thank you. Your reference is ambiguous to me. I think you think I mean WordPerfect. I don't. I mean the Program Editor (PE) sold by WordPerfect Corporation. It is a different (and not quite so highly respected) product altogether for straight ASCII. I was only saying that the reveal codes of *this* product shows the file in hex in the bottom half of the screen. I once had an archive file go bad. I recovered most of my data by locating each file's header in the arc, turning on block, and going till the next header. Then I pasted the block to the other window. Messy, but it worked, and thus my suggestion. -- Frank Burleigh USENET: ...rutgers!iuvax!silver!burleigh BITNET: BURLEIGH@IUBACS.BITNET Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
mab@j.cc.purdue.edu (Mike Brown) (02/28/89)
I've corresponded via private email with the original poster of this
query, and I believe he's adopted my solution. But, since there seems
to be a lot of ongoing discussion on this, and since I've not seen
anyone else take this approach, I thought I'd share my solution with
the net at large.
Some time ago, a program called "bed" was posted in comp.sources.unix.
I use bed on a Unix system, but I think it would be a trivial task to
port it to other systems. The next time I need an MS-DOS binary
editor, I'll probably do just that.
Bed is not an editor, but is rather a front-end to your favorite text
editor that you already know and love. It reads the file to be edited
and converts it, per your specs, to a readable text temp file. You
then edit the temp file with your customary text editor, and when
you're done, bed converts the file back to its binary form. This gives
you all the flexibility, power, and familiarity of the editor you
normally use, and lets you edit any type of file.
There are at least half a dozen comp.sources.unix archive sites
scattered over the country that provide ftp and/or uucp access to the
archives. One of them is our own j.cc.purdue.edu system; there may be
others closer to you.
Here's a capsule summary of how to access our comp.sources.unix
archives. I'll assume you're familiar with ftp; if not, you can
probably find a local guru at your shop who is.
$ ftp j.cc.purdue.edu
(login as "anonymous")
ftp> cd comp.sources.unix
ftp> get README
The README file describes the file formats of the archives and includes
an index of what's there. Most things you'll need to transfer to your
system in binary mode and uncompress.
--
Mike Brown, Systems Programmer ARPANET (best): mab@j.cc.purdue.edu
Purdue University Computing Center BITNET: xmab@purccvm
West Lafayette, IN 47907 PHONE: 317/494-1787davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (03/02/89)
I dug back in my archives and found a thing called 'bpe' (binary patch
editor). I is unix dependent. However, in changing it to fit my uses, I
have gotten to the point where there is a hope that it could be run
under DOS. I'll try to cross compile from Xenix to DOS using the PC
curses package, and if it works I'll post it. I have added some new
features, fixed some which didn't work, and put in some additional user
info and a decent makefile.
So far it seems to run on Xenix and V/AT, it will be tried on BSD later
today. I'll do the attempt at a DOS port tonight.
--
bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
{uunet | philabs}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me