Talk:Comparison of hex editors

Grid

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

Unlimited file size

Obviously no program can support unlimited file sizes, only virtually unlimited sizes; it's a design decision. That's why it makes sense to specify the current maximum file size (usually dependent on the file system or the operating system). If somebody wants to remove "unlimited" then this should be done for all programs or none of them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.179.162.136 (talk) 02:24, 30 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In reality "unlimited" often only means 2^32-1 or even 2^31-1 which is of course less than 2^63.

This means: A program with "unlimited" file size often does not support large file sizes supported by programs that "officially" have limited file sizes (of more than 2^60 bytes).

This fact may confuse the reader of this article. Therefore I also think the article should be modified.

--Mr1278 (talk) 12:54, 23 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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).

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)

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.

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

Removed. --Ronz (talk) 19:23, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

HHD Software Free Hex Editor Neo

I removed the listings for HDD's so called free editor as it's actually 14 day trialware that says right in the licensing agreement, "This is not free software.". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.58.252.5 (talk) 14:45, 19 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Mistake by 216.58.252.5

Misunderstanding of product EULA by user IP 216.58.252.5. The Product is available in several different editions, one of which is Free. See the edition comparison table here:
Hex Editor Neo Edition Comparison Table:

Here is the fragment from the product EULA:

END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
...
Free version of the software is distributed under the terms in "Free Version" section (see below).
...
FREE VERSION
The HHD Software Company through this License Agreement grants to you non-exclusive and non-transferable rights thereunder in respect of using a copy of the computer program for a service life thereof, i.e. for a time period throughout which HHD Software shall maintain and make available an updated version thereof. This particular software version is distributed free of charge, therefore, the applicable license is only granted for home use thereof. In case of this free version, the program is not subject to any guarantees, and the user has no right to any technical support whatsoever.
...

--HHD Software (talk) 13:14, 26 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Spam

First, to be absolutely clear, I am the creator of HexEdit (free and shareware versions). I have made small changes to this ("Comparison of hex editors") page but these were only small corrections of fact to the entries for Hex Edit.

I am disappointed that some vendors are using this page for self-promotion -- noteably, the commercial vendors HHD and 010. Also some of the creators of free products (such as HxD) are guilty of the same but I am inclined to give freeware a bit more leeway.

For example, the 4 links in the references section go against the Wikipedia guidelines (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:REF). They are a link grab and should be removed.

010 have a history of this. I discovered an article at CodeProject that was self-promotion/link grab disguised as a normal article. In fact when 010 first came out it plagiarised many ideas that appeared in my free hex editor. They continue to advertise their "unique binary templates" which are not unique since I invented a similar facility for HexEdit years before theirs.

I should say that this page is very useful and a great idea (like Wikipedia generally), and I would like to keep it that way. 124.171.23.33 (talk) 21:24, 3 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am disappointed that some vendors are using this page for self-promotion -- noteably, the commercial vendors HHD and 010. Also some of the creators of free products (such as HxD) are guilty of the same but I am inclined to give freeware a bit more leeway.
For example, the 4 links in the references section go against the Wikipedia guidelines (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:REF). They are a link grab and should be removed.

As the creator of HxD I would just like to comment on why this is not spam (from my side). The reference link was added because previously someone removed the "unlimited (8 EiB)" from the "Maximum file size" column, with the argument that 8EiB is a limit. Of course on a computer unlimited can only mean virtually unlimited. It seems it's not obvious in general, so this was replaced with "unlimited" and a reference to the product features.

92.202.24.221 (talk) 00:00, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think I'm the one who added 010 and (quite a few others in the disk editor article) initially... But I didn't make 010. I agree that it should not be spammed at the bottom with the references or whatever they're doing. Are those 'structure' or 'template' features like the disectors in Ethereal/Wireshark? That is a nice feature for figuring out a file format if true. Especially if they can be defined from within the editing window!71.196.246.113 (talk) 04:59, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Used By

I have never seen a "Used By" column on another Wikipedia listing. I don't think it's really appropriate here on the grounds that it isn't verifiable by any means. I'm not sure if this would be considered self-publishing or not. Additionally, it's not in any way statistically conclusive. It's basically a third party website saying "this is how many users we have who say they use this software". The site itself claims to only have 8 Million members, which is not even a decent sampling of world wide users to begin to provide a statistical base. I leave it to the other better editors to make a determination upon this, or tell me I'm flat out wrong and this is something that needs to be here, and if so, it must need to be added to the many additional software pages to show this information. -- KookyMan (talk) 19:55, 29 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

GNU Midnight Commander

it has a hex editor.

/not gonna add it myself :/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.17.167.191 (talk) 12:46, 28 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hex viewing - read only

What hex viewers are available, with no danger of changing the file in any way? Which hex editors can be readily invoked in read-only viewing mode? -96.233.20.116 (talk) 12:54, 16 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]