Hex viewer

[hindesite]

<font color="blue">This isn't really a question. I am just curious on something. I played with the hex viewer, and can someone tell me what good it does to see compared hex representations of two files? I mean are there actually editors such that you COULD make one like the other?

Just color me curious... </font>

[Craig]

The hex viewer is usually used for generated files, rather than those constructed by hand. It will be more useful to developers and engineers than end users.

As a couple of examples of our own use:

1. When new cracks for BC are released we compare copies of BC2.exe before and after applying them to see what's been changed.

2. When we were adding the zip support I compared the zips that BC generated against similar ones from Winzip to make sure everything was compatible.

One customer is using it to help debug network connections, and I believe someone was using it to compare DVD data tracks, but I think that failed do to the size limitation...

I use the Hex viewer a lot - I have a Palm Pilot, and use it on 2 machines. I try to use Beyond Compare to move the address, todo, memo, and calendar from the machine that last did a hot-sync or that I last updated, but on occasion I forget.

So I open hex viewer, and scan for differences - for example it might show several updates on machine "A" and a new calendar entry on machine "B", so I realize I goofed and updated on "B" from an old version. Since the file is binary and some internal format I can't just copy - I have to manually go into "A" and add that calendar entry, then move the updated entire file from A to B.

Ward Christensen
(Inventor of "Xmodem" and "BBSs".

[frodsham]

And, not having found anything better, for hex editing I still use the WordPerfect Office Editor last updated in 1994!

On occasion when I need to use a hex editor, I use HexEdit from http://www.expertcomsoft.com/
They have free and paid versions.

And, not having found anything better, for hex editing I still use the WordPerfect Office Editor last updated in 1994!

Sounds like you've been looking in the wrong place. Why not use a program editor? For instance, Multi-Edit will edit any file as hex, and has built-in integration for BC.

[LynnP]

I use the Hex viewer a lot - I have a Palm Pilot, and use it on 2 machines. I try to use Beyond Compare to move the address, todo, memo, and calendar from the machine that last did a hot-sync or that I last updated, but on occasion I forget.

So I open hex viewer, and scan for differences - for example it might show several updates on machine "A" and a new calendar entry on machine "B", so I realize I goofed and updated on "B" from an old version. Since the file is binary and some internal format I can't just copy - I have to manually go into "A" and add that calendar entry, then move the updated entire file from A to B.

Ward Christensen
(Inventor of "Xmodem" and "BBSs".

How exactly do you use BC to compare your Palm Pilot data and the data on your PC? I'd love to be able to do the same thing with my Palm Pilot.

Lynn