Talk:Comparison of hex editors

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I think a very interesting and important feature that should be listed in the grid is whether each hex editor allows arbitrary insertions and deletions, or is limited to overwriting existing data. Unfortunately, I don't know how to gather this information about the listed editors.

-ridiculous_fish

Contents

[edit] Intel Hex (or Motorola S-Record) capability

Another feature that should be listed is whether the editor allows to read/write Intel HEX files. The Intel Hex or Motorola S-Record formats are examples of file formats which include address information. This allows to read/write non-contiguous areas (a must for embedded programming).

[edit] What do the headers mean?

"Maximum file size", "Bit editing", "Disassembler", and "Character encodings" are all obvious in meaning. But I'm confused about the others.

"Load file in memory" -- Does this mean it can load a file into memory, or load a file that is resident in memory?
"Disk editing" -- Does this mean the ability to edit system structure, or does it just have the "save to disk" operation..?
"Text editor" -- Emacs is a text editor, so are echo/cat. Is this refering to auto-wrapping lines, the ability to stick "all your base are belong to us" into a file (inserting characters?) or simply the ability to type in ASCII codes?
"Structure view" -- Structure of what, exactly?
"Choose font" -- This doesn't seem immediately useful to me. This is an informational wiki page, used for finding good hex editors. Typically, I'd assume that most anyone looking for a good hex editor is not going to care too much how pretty it is...
Sketch-The-Fox 17:25, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

  • The "Choose Font" column offers no benefit--Those looking for a hex editor are looking for features, not pretty graphics. Also, none of the DOS/Console hex editors could have fonts anyway. Sketch-The-Fox 05:09, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm not sure my comments are any help, but here they are. ;^)
  • I would guess that "load file in memory" means that the program loads the entire file into memory, which means it can't handle really large files very easy.
  • I would guess that "disk editing" means that the user can edit files either directly on the disk, or can load portions of the file into memory and then rewrite the same segment.
  • I would guess that "text editor" means you can type actual text using the keyboard (i.e. not have to encode all additions)
  • I agree that "view structure" is ambiguous. Perhaps some programs attempt to determine the way the data is organized and/or the user can specify an organization and have the data displayed in those formats (e.g. a float followed by an int followed by ...)
  • The advantage of "choose font" would be if the data were encoded in a different language (e.g. a Hebrew font)
You might consider checking the links for entries that have values for the fields in question. That might shed some light on whatever the original author was thinking. If I had more time, I would offer to help. :-( wrp103 (Bill Pringle) 14:34, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
I think "Disk editing" should mean that you can directly edit disk sectors, instead of editing files. You can then edit e.g. boot sector, file allocation table, didrectories etc. for example to repair broken disk structure. I suggest this column to be renamed to Disk sector editing. (BTW, NT based Windows do not allow disk sector editing as far as I know.)
"File structure view" heading is still ambiguous, no explanation has been given. The link points to "File format" page, which is not very useful. PauliKL (talk) 10:41, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
What does "Search unicode" mean? Why would you need some special function to search for unicode? In hex editor, the normal way is to search for the hex value of specific unicode character. PauliKL (talk) 17:02, 17 December 2007 (UTC)
You're right about the disk editing column; however, Tiny Hexer supports disk editing ONLY for NT-based systems. (You do have to be administrator though.) "File structure view" refers to the ability to display a file or a range of bytes as a C structure or something of the sort. --Aurochs (Talk | Block)

[edit] Hex Edit listing is inaccurate

I only just discovered this page and I don't know how to edit it, or if I should being the creator of Hex Edit.

The entries for "Hex Edit" and "Hex Edit Free" are pretty obviously mine but I think there should be some way to distinguish programs (perhaps a web page address column) since there are/have been several editors called "Hex Edit". Actually I usually write the name of mine without a space as "HexEdit".

There are several inaccuracies in my listing:

- it does do disk editing (new in 3.1)

- it has always allowed individual bit editing (in Byte page of modeless Properties dialog by double-clicking individual bits in the binary view)

- I am not exactly sure what is meant by text editing but you can edit characters in the character area (in ASCII, EBCDIC etc)

- it has always provided an INS mode allowing inserting and deleting of bytes (in 3.0 this uses a new algorithm that avoids the need for temporary files)

- structure viewer - we invented the advanced template system that has been copied by other editors

- there is no disassembler (that is CORRECT)

Also it does provide Intel-hex and Motorola-S reading and writing, including discontiguous records as an option.

All of these features are also provided in the FREE version as well, except for the disk editor.

[edit] Hexit homepage disappeared

Because HexIt's homepage disappeared, I provide link to Wayback snapshot of its homepage here: [1] Direct Wayback download here: [2] Wayback download requires repairing ZIP archive, but hopefully its damage doesn't affect archived files - they are identical with themselves downloaded before disappearing of Hexit's homepage. As you see, HexIt is still 1.57 from 2002 onwards. Wikinger 14:16, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Large file viewing

Almost all modern text editors read the whole file into memory in order to work with it. This makes even just browsing/viewing large files awkward and slow -- sometimes impossible, if they do not fit into memory. So, a person wanting to view a large text file needs to use a hex editor, because some of them are able to browse through large files directly, without having to load the whole file into memory first. Some hex editors are probably better than others at displaying text nicely. See "Maximum file size" and "Partial file loading" columns in Comparison of hex editors. Are there any particularly good guides to "Viewing large text files"? -69.87.200.124 12:13, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Linkfarm

The external links to product sites in the first column (unlabeled) should be removed per WP:EL, WP:SPAM, and WP:NOT#LINK --Ronz 21:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SORT BUTTON

PLEASE ADD SORT BOTTON ON EVERY COLUMM —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.235.192 (talk) 09:08, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Inaccuracy about i.Hex

The source-code of i.Hex is available for downloading on the website however the license is not specified so I think it's license shouldn't be left as proprietary.

Diaa Sami —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 13:46, 28 September 2007 (UTC)