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XED version 1.0a heX EDitor A Unique Hexadecimal/Binary file editor (c) Copyright 1993-94 David L. Dight All Rights Reserved. P.O. Box 280, Kings Cross, N.S.W. 2011 AUSTRALIA Fax: +61 2 233 2929, On CompuServe:100033,2563 or the Internet davidd@interconnect.com.au -+- User's Guide Revision 1.0.a.4 16-Jul-1994. -+- Contents ======== 1. XED - an overview. 2. Features a) Unlimited file size b) Modify file length c) Mouse support d) EGA/VGA alternate screen modes e) Undo and Undo all f) Edit entire paragraphs as strings g) Bitwise and binary h) Create compiler readable data definitions i) Online help, ASCII tables and Text filter j) Multiple markers k) Unassembler 3. Command line 4. Movement 5. Editing 6. Other functions and notes a) Searching b) Goto offset c) Save d) Insert paragraph e) Copy paragraph f) Delete paragraph g) Seven/Eight bit ASCII h) File information i) DOS shell j) Quit k) Help menu l) Bitwise operations m) Binary display/edit n) Assignment expressions o) Fonts p) C data definition creation q) ASCII tables r) Text filter s) Using markers t) Using the unassembler 7. Program Environment 8. Keyboard Summary 9. Notes, Disclaimer -+- 1. XED - an overview. ===================== XED is a simple to use hex file editor. XED permits binary files to be edited in much the same way as normal text files. Files are initially viewed as containing (bytes/16) paragraphs. Bytes from these paragraphs are presented on the screen as hex digits to left, and as ASCII characters to the right. In this document, the meaning of "line" and "paragraph" will be the same. Typical uses include repair of backup file headers; editing of string constants in executables; creation or expansion of binary data files or any other situations which require low-level modification to a file. Unlike many other hex editors, XED is not restricted to editing the file as it appears on the disk. The file is viewed as a stream of binary characters. This allows you to edit and change any binary file. The only restriction to the size of the edited file is your hard disk capacity. XED starts in hex mode. To toggle over to the ASCII window, press the TAB key. The cursor may be moved with the normal cursor/page keys. A simple reverse video block selects the current byte which may be edited on screen. You may also edit an entire paragraph by pressing the INS key. If you are in ASCII mode, the current paragraph can be edited as a string. In hex mode, XED converts the paragraph into a hex string (2 hex digits per byte). The length of the paragraph can be increased or decreased. To search, press Shift+F8. Depending on the mode you are in. XED will prompt for a hex or an ASCII string. F8 repeats the last search. To move to specific offset press F9. Offsets can be entered in decimal, hex or octal. F4 will save the current file to disk and by default, create a backup copy of your original file. -+- 2. Features. ============ a) Unlimited file size XED can edit files as big as your disk storage permits. By default, XED will use extended memory. If that is unavailable or full, expanded memory will be used. If again this is unavailable or full, XED will use the TMP or TEMP environment variable to locate the drive and directory to store the file buffer on disk. For small files the hard-disk will never be required. However for larger files, this will be used. (A note: if you use a ramdisk and have your TMP variable set to that drive, make sure you set the TMP variable to your hard disk. XED will need about two to three times the size of the file in bytes for buffer storage on the disk). b) Modify file length XED permits bytes to be inserted or deleted from any binary file. This means that executable files, hidden files and device files can be modified. Of course, you should know what it is you are editing before attempting to do so. A typical example may be to repair/insert a header in a corrupted backup file. Blank paragraphs and paragraph copies can also be inserted. XED displays a '+' next to any paragraph that is longer than 16 bytes, and a '-' next to paragraphs less than 16 bytes. c) Mouse support XED can be used with a mouse. You can click on bytes to edit; scroll the edit window; select paragraphs to be edited and select commands from a menu. The use of a mouse is recommended. d) EGA/VGA alternate screen modes XED will default to the 25 line display. If you have an EGA, you can also use the 43 line display mode. If you have a VGA, 28, 43 or 50 line modes are also available. See the -l option. e) Undo and Undo all When a paragraph has been modified, XED retains the original contents. The paragraph may then be undone at anytime by pressing ALT+U. All paragraphs that have changed can be undone as well by pressing ALT+A. XED displays a '!' next to any paragraph that has changed. f) Edit entire paragraphs as strings An entire paragraph can be edited as an ASCII string or as an ASCII string of hex digits. This permits the insertion or deletion or modification of any paragraph, with any character. The normal inline editing functions are fully supported. Any ASCII character that is used by XED (e.g. TAB) can be entered in hex mode. g) Bitwise, binary and assignment expressions XED supports a number of bitwise operations when in hex mode, e.g. shift, rotate and 1's complement. The current byte can be viewed and edited in binary (see Editing/binary display). Simple assignment expressions can be executed on the current byte. For example, the following expression can be entered to switch off the first 3 bits: [<offset>] &= ~0x7 XED supports the full set of 'C' assignment operators plus a few non 'C' operators. See Section 6.n. h) Create compiler readable data definitions It is often necessary to convert a binary file into a compiler readable format. This usually requires a program to be created to do the task. XED can do this for you by creating 'C' data definitions from any file. i) Online help, ASCII tables and Text filter Various help screens are available within XED depending on the situation. A Dec/Hex/Oct/Bin/ASCII table is also provided. An additional feature in these tables displays individual charac- ter counts for the current file. XED allows you to view the current file through three different text filters, which permits easier comprehension of data in particular editing situations. j) Multiple markers XED permits up to 39 file markers to be set within the current file. A mark list window is also available for quicker mark retrieval. Multiple markers can be very useful if you are working on a number of different offsets within the file. The mark list permits easy viewing and retrieval of your marks. k) Unassembler XED permits data to unassembled for viewing. A feature of this capability allows you to align starting byte offsets to decode various instructions correctly. The 80x86 family opcodes are fully supported including true 32 bit, floating point 80x87 and emulated instructions. -+- 3. Command line. ================ XED accepts the name of the file to edit (no wildcards) plus a number of switchable options. An optional response file can be specified. A response file is simply a text file containing a list of switches (including a filename). To specify a response file, prefix the response filename with the at '@' character, for example: xed @myopts You can debug your response file switches by appending the -h switch to the parameter list. XED will respond with the help message, with your correctly parsed switches and or values listed in the respective switch 'default' values. If no file or response file is given, XED will search for the default response file "XED.RSP". If this file is present in the current directory, it will be read. Response files provide a way of configuring XED yet still permit different files to be edited. For example, the default response file could contain your display or backup options or other switches you may need, but not the filename. XED will then read the response file and prompt for the file to edit. The switches are summarised below: usage: XED [-abdefghijlmnprstuvx7?!] <[@]file> -a start in ASCII mode, default False -b make Backup before save, default True -d force Disk based virtual memory, default False -e Expert mode, default False -f use system Font, default False -g show system characters, default False -h(help) print this Help message, default True -i Ignore machine test, default False -j enable mouse Jump ("snapto"), default True -l <set screen Lines [25 28 43 50]>, default 25 -m Mono screen, default False -n biNary display, default False -p disable Pointing device, default False -r Read only, default False -s enable Sound, default True -t <start in Text filter#>, default 1 -u Display hex bytes using Upper case, default False -v <resident Virtual memory (Kb)>, default 128 -x <eXecute DOS command on startup> -7 start with 7 bit ASCII display, default False -? print Usage message, default False -! about XED Notes. Switches that do not require a parameter can be 'stacked' together on one switch (which can be a '-' or a '/'). The last switch stacked can also be a switch that takes a parameter for example: xed -p -f -a -l28 -d myfile.bin can be regrouped and passed as follows: xed myfile.bin -pfadl28 The file name can appear any where on the command line. If a file is not specified, XED will prompt for the filename. Similarly, if a switch that requires a parameter is given without the parameter, XED will prompt you for it. If the filename is omitted, XED will prompt for it last. Notes about each switch follows: -a XED defaults to hex mode on startup. Use this switch to start in ASCII mode. -b By default, XED creates a backup of any file that has been saved, in the directory where the file resides. Use this switch to disable backup creation. -d Forces XED to use the disk only for buffering. This may be necessary if your extended/expanded memory is not large enough to hold the file buffer. XED will normally detect this situation anyway. Use this switch if you still experience problems. -e Disables yes/no prompts with non-trivial operations. -f Disable internal font. XED reprograms the video controller to use a different text font. Use this switch if characters appear corrupted. CGA and certain EGA adaptors will need this switch. You may also select this option if you are examining files that use some of the redefined font characters. -g By default, XED uses 32 characters in the font table for system purposes. These are not displayed. This option forces XED to display these characters. -h Prints a switch summary with switch descriptions. -i XED will only run on PC/AT or greater (386's and greater are of course ok). XED will test your machine to see if it conforms. On some early systems, machine ID's may not be recognised. If this is the case, and your system is a 286 or greater, use this switch. -j By default, the mouse cursor will jump to the exit button in most windows or to the scroll characters in the text filter and ASCII tables. After leaving a window, XED will move the cursor to the position it was prior to executing the command. To disable this, use this switch. -l<n> If you have an EGA, you can use 43 line mode (eg -l43). With VGAs, you can choose from 28, 43 or 50 line modes. -m Force monochrome display attributes. -n When the binary display flag is set, the currently selec- ted byte will be displayed in binary at the far left of the screen (replacing the paragraph offset), see F5. -p XED will use the mouse by default if present. The mouse can be disabled with this switch. -r The current file cannot be written (read only). -s XED uses bleeps when issuing warning messages. These can be disabled with this switch. -t<n> This switch will force XED to enter the text filter wind- ow number n (1-3) on starting. -u By default, XED displays hex digits (A-F) in lower case. This switch forces upper case. Hex offsets are always displayed using upper case. -v<n> By default, XED will use 128Kb of DOS memory for the virtual heapspace. This can be adjusted to suit your memory availability (maximum value is 640). -x<s> Execute DOS command on startup. The command string can contain parameters as along as the entire string is enclosed in double quotes. -7 By default, XED displays the full 8 bit ASCII character set. This switch selects 7 bit display. -? Print a short usage message. -! Print the About XED message. Return value ------------ XED will return the following values to DOS: 0 - normal exit, no error. 1 - either the file was not found or the response file was not found. 2 - XED couldn't initialise the argument parser. 3 - the executable XED.EXE is corrupt. 4 - insufficient memory to execute. 5 - XED couldn't initialise virtual memory. +6 - _vm_errors + 5 if any. !! if you are interested in the command line argument parsing routine used in XED, please contact me on CompuServe or on the Internet and I will upload it to you. The routines are written in C++ and are a collection of argument parsing objects. Compiles in DOS/UNIX. -+- 4. Movement. ============ The cursor keys will locate the software cursor anywhere on the screen in either hex or ASCII modes. The screen will scroll one page at a time if up or down are pressed on the first or last lines respectively. HOME/END moves to the first and last byte on the current paragraph. PGUP/PGDN move one page, Crtl+PGUP/PGDN will move 10 pages. Crtl+HOME and Crtl+END will move to the first and last paragraph. If you are using the mouse, the scroll bar to the right of the screen supports mouse activated movement. If you click on the top or bottom arrows, XED will execute a PGUP/PGDN. If you hold the button down, XED will continue to page. If you click anywhere on the bar, XED will move to the approximate position relative to the whole file. If you click on the bar position just below the top arrow or just above the bottom arrow, XED will execute a Crtl+HOME or Crtl+END. The relative offset block in the scroll bar can be picked up and moved within the scroll bar, moving the current offset relative to the whole file. The UP/DOWN arrows will scroll the page on the window limits. -+- 5. Editing. =========== A reverse video software cursor points to the current offset. The offset is displayed in both hex and decimal at the top right of the screen. Moving the cursor or page keys will relocate the cursor. If you are using the mouse, you can click on any byte to relocate the cursor (if you are in hex mode you can click on a byte in the ASCII window - and vice-versa). Press TAB to toggle between the ASCII and hex windows. In hex mode, you can enter hex digits directly at the cursor and in ASCII, normal ASCII characters can be entered. XED will move the cursor to the right after a valid entry. To save the changes you have made to the current paragraph, you must press ENTER. XED will tag the current paragraph with a '!'. If the current paragraph has changed but has not yet been committed (i.e. ENTER has not been pressed), XED will display a '' to left of the Hex display. When in Hex mode, the following bitwise operations are recogn- ized: press < to shift left by 1 bit " L " rotate left by 1 bit " > " shift right by 1 bit " R " rotate right by 1 bit " + " increment " - " decrement " ~ " bitwise NOT (1's complement) " ` " negate (2's complement) These keys operate on the currently selected byte. As with any edit, you must press ENTER before moving off the line to keep your changes. When in Hex mode, the current byte can be edited in binary mode by pressing Shift+F5. (You must first select binary display mode by pressing F5 if you are not in this mode). If you are using the mouse, you can click on the binary display at the left of the screen to edit in binary. The cursor will move to the far left of the screen where the byte is displayed. You may move the cursor to any bit and enter a 1 or a 0. The bitwise operator keys described above are also active. Mouse users can also toggle individual bits on or off by clicking on any bit. To save the byte, press ENTER (or click the right button). This will exit from binary mode and take you back to Hex mode. To save any binary edits you must press ENTER again before leaving the line. To abort binary editing, press ESCAPE. 'C' like assignment expressions can be executed by pressing F6. After entering the expression, XED will update the current byte with the result. Press ENTER to accept the changes. See section 6.n below for more details. To edit an entire paragraph, press INS. If you are in hex mode, the current paragraph will be translated into an ASCII string of two digit hex bytes. This string can then be edited on the bottom line of the screen. XED recognises the usual in-line editing keys (such as DEL, INS, HOME, END, LEFT, RIGHT, BACKSPACE, and so on). In ASCII mode, the string is presented for editing on the last line. For inline editing help, press F1 (or click on the '?'). Up to 80 ASCII or 40 hex bytes can be inserted or deleted per paragraph. When in hex mode, two hex digits are needed for each byte - bytes that require one hex digit only must be entered with a leading '0'. To save changes you have made to the current paragraph, you must press ENTER. To abort, press ESCAPE. XED displays a '+' if the paragraph is greater than 16 bytes, and '-' if it is less. The new length of the paragraph is printed on the bottom line. If you are using the mouse, you can click on the paragraph offset at the left of the screen to edit that paragraph. The cursor can be located within the string using the mouse. You may return to an edited paragraph and restore its original contents by pressing ALT+U. If you then subsequently re-edit the paragraph, XED will retain the previously edited paragraph in the undo buffer. This means you can still lose the original contents! (of course you don't have to save the file). Inline editing is available on any operation that takes the cursor to the bottom line (this includes whole paragraph edits, search specs and goto offset). Apart from the normal cursor keys, backspace and INS/DEL, XED recognises ALT+D (delete to end of line) and F3 (get last edited string). All changes can be undone by pressing ALT+A. Unfortunately, this will NOT undo whole paragraph insertions or deletions. Press F1 for help or click on the '?' on the top line. The help screen can also be used as a menu. Any command can be entered or clicked on from the menu to execute. If you click on the filename, XED will execute F10 file info function. If you click on the two shutter characters at the top left. XED will exit. When in any edit mode, if the mouse location when the left button is clicked is not valid, the left button will execute an ESCAPE. The mouse buttons default to ESCAPE for the left button and ENTER for the right button. -+- 6. Other functions and notes. ============================= a) Searching To search for a string or byte, press Shift+F8. In ASCII mode, you can enter an ASCII string on the bottom line. In hex mode, you can enter one or more hex digits. To search again, press F8. You can interrupt a search by pressing ESCAPE. To automatically mark the search find, press Crtl+F8 instead of F8. In this way you can record search finds for later review. b) Goto offset To goto an offset, press F9. XED will prompt you to enter an offset. You can enter the value in Decimal, Hex or Octal, for example: 285053 (dec) 0x4597D (hex) 01054575 (oct) You can also goto a mark by entering the desired mark number prefixed with a '%'. c) Save To save the current file press F4. XED will create a backup of the current file by default. To disable this, start XED with the -b switch (see above). d) Insert paragraph F2 will insert a blank paragraph (16 bytes - all nulls) below the current paragraph. Use this to insert data. The length of the new paragraph can be modified by editing (see INS above). By default XED will prompt you to confirm any editing function such as insert paragraph. XED will NOT prompt in expert mode. e) Copy paragraph F3 will copy and insert the current paragraph below. f) Delete paragraph Shift+F2 will delete the current paragraph regardless of whether it has been expanded or contracted. XED will NOT prompt in expert mode. g) Seven/Eight bit ASCII By default, XED will display ASCII characters (in the ASCII window) as 8 bit characters. To toggle between 7 and 8 bit, press F7. Some of the low order ASCII characters and all the high bit characters will displayed as a period '.' h) File information To obtain information about the current file, press F10. XED will display the file size (both on disk - in bytes and paragraphs, and edit size in bytes), the time/date of last modification, any attributes (A=archive H=hidden S=system R=read-only) and the number of changes (if any). A change is any change to one paragraph. Also calculated and displayed is the file CRC32 and the free disk buffer space. Mouse users can click on the filename on the first line of the screen to execute this command. i) DOS shell To start a DOS shell press ALT+X. XED will swap itself out to expanded/extended memory or to disk if necessary. j) Quit To exit press ESCAPE. XED will prompt you to confirm. If you are in expert mode, XED WILL NOT PROMPT, EVEN IF THE FILE HAS CHANGED. Mouse users can click on the button at the top left of the screen to execute this command. Note: the right mouse button defaults to ENTER when in XED and can therefore be used for confirmations. Shift+F4 aborts XED without prompting. You can abort while XED is loading a file by pressing 'q'. k) Help menu Press F1 for the help screen. Mouse users can click on the question mark on the top line of the screen. The help screen also doubles as a simple menu. Any command can be entered from the menu. PGUP/PGDN move between the two help screens. Mouse users can click on any character within a command to execute that command. l) Bitwise operations These are available only in Hex and Binary edit modes. See Section 5 for more details. To edit in binary, you must first select binary display mode by pressing F5. m) Binary display and edit F5 toggles the binary display. When on, the currently selected byte will be displayed in binary at the far left of the screen (replacing the current paragraph offset). To edit the current byte in binary, press Shift+F5 or click on the binary displayed byte. Mouse users can click on individual bits in the byte which will toggle the bit on or off. n) Assignment expressions To enter an assignment expression, press F6. XED will convert the current byte to a simple assignment expression, in the form: [<offset>] = 0x<hex byte> for example: [4CD0] = 0xe7 You can only edit the operator and value parts of the expression, which is printed on the bottom line for editing. Use the cursor keys, backspace, etc, to edit the expression. You may enter any of the standard 'C' assignment operators. The right value (rval) must be an integer constant, in the form: 0x?? hex digit(s) (e.g. 0xF6, 0x7) 0??? octal digit(s) (e.g. 045) ????? decimal digit(s) (e.g. 45) ????????b binary digit(s) (e.g. 10101010b, 1100b) and no subexpressions or parentheses are recognised. The following 'C' assignment operators are recognised: a = b simple assignment a += b plus equals (a = a + b) a -= b minus equals (a = a - b) a *= b times equals (a = a * b) a /= b divide equals (a = a / b) a &= b bitwise AND equals (a = a & b) a |= b bitwise OR equals (a = a | b) a ^= b bitwise XOR equals (a = a ^ b) a %= b modulus equals (a = a % b) a <<= b left shift equals (a = a << b) a >>= b right shift equals (a = a >> b) a <op> ~<val> 1's complement and the following non 'C' assignment operators: a l= b left rotate equals (lrot (a, b)) a r= b right rotate equals (rrot (a, b)) a <op> `<val> 2's complement The 1's '~' complement operator is also recognised. This can precede any rval, to 'NOT' the value before assignment. A 2's complement operator is also available, '`'. This is used in the same way as the 1's complement operator, and returns the 1's complement plus 1 (the same as the 'C' '-' unary minus (sign change) operator). When editing an expression, you can view a summary of the expression types by pressing F1 (or click on the '?'). Examples: [<offset>] |= 0x3 (switch on bits 0-1) [<offset>] &= ~0x3 (switch off bits 0-1) [<offset>] *= 10 multiply by 10 (dec) [<offset>] += 1 increment [<offset>] <<= 3 shift left 3 bits [<offset>] l= 3 rotate left 3 bits [<offset>] ^= 10011b xor with 0x13 [<offset>] = `111b assign 2's complement of 111b (=0xF9) [<offset>] >>= `0376 right shift by the 2's complement of octal 376 (0xfe) (=0x2) o) Fonts XED reprograms the video controller to accommodate both the use of special characters and to emulate the graphics mouse cursor. Consequently, certain extended characters (eg. some ruling graphics) will not be displayed in the ASCII window. In their place, XED will display a small 'x'. In order to see these characters, use the -g switch (see section 3). To force XED to display the default character set, use the following command line: xed -pf <file> which disables the mouse and uses the system font. The following characters are used by the system: 0x8c 0x8d 0x8e 0x8f 0x90 0x91 0x92 0x93 0x94 0x95 0x9b 0x9f 0xc7 0xc9 0xcd 0xce 0xcf 0xd0 0xd1 0xd2 0xd3 0xd4 0xd5 0xd6 0xd7 0xd8 0xdc 0xf6 0xf7 0xf8 0xff 0x00 p) C data definition creation To create a 'C' data definition using the current file, press Crtl+F4. XED will create the definition to the current file- name with .HEX extension, in the following format: typedef struct { char paragraph[16]; } PARAGRAPH; PARAGRAPH untitled[] = { { "\x4d\x5a\xa3\x01\x11\x00\x05\x00\x20\x00\xe1\x02\xff\xff\x5b\x04" }, { "\x00\x08\x00\x00\x14\x01\x00\x00\x1e\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x22\x01" }, . . . { "\x4d\x5a\xa3" }, }; For example, if the current file is MYFILE.BIN, XED will create the definition to the file MYFILE.HEX. The file can then be included in your program as a header file. Note: the data generated may cause an overflow in the DATA segment if the data definition is too large. Check that the data created will fit your target memory model. As a guide, the generated file will be approx. 4 to 5 times the size of the binary file. If the length of the last paragraph is not 16 bytes, the definition will still compile to 16 bytes in length, padded with nulls. You need to be aware of this. Some compilers may require pragmas to align the data on 1 byte boundaries. To assist you to incorporate the definitions generated, XED will generate the following #define statements: #define FILESIZE <size of file in bytes>L e.g. #define FILESIZE 12389L and: #define PARAGRAPHS (sizeof(untitled)/sizeof(PARAGRAPH)) which corresponds to the number of 16 byte paragraphs defined. If the last paragraph is not 16 bytes in length, the following statement is also produced: #define BYTES_ON_LAST <bytes on last paragraph> e.g. #define BYTES_ON_LAST 11 See the file COLOURS.HEX which is an example data definition that was generated by XED. The program file MKBIN.C is an example that uses the definition file to create an executable file called COLOURS.COM q) ASCII tables To view the ASCII tables, press Shift+F6. XED will display two columns of 13 bytes. Each byte is displayed in decimal, hexadecimal, octal, binary and its ASCII character. You can page through the table with PGUP/PGDN. Mouse users can click on the up/down arrows at the top right of the window. Press HOME/END to go to the start/end of the table. Note: the ASCII characters displayed will contain some chara- cters used by XED, which are replaced with a small 'x'. See 6.o above. To see the standard 3 character names for the first 32 chara- cters, press F1. Mouse users can click on the word "Asc" to toggle the name display. F2 toggles the binary/character count fields. The character counts are calculated when you run the file info command F10. Mouse users can click on the words "Binary" or "Count" to toggle the display. Character counts can be useful when analysing a data or text file. The counts shown will reflect changes made to the file. To update the counters, press F10 then Shift+F6. F3 will resort the table from lowest to highest character frequencies. If you press F3 again, the table will resorted back to the default ASCII order. Mouse users can click on the words "Dec" to toggle the sort. To exit, press ESCAPE. r) Text filter To view the current file through the text filter, press Shift +F7. The current page is displayed as text lines in a window. Extended and non-printable characters are shown as a '.' By default, XED filters all characters below 0x20 (32 dec), only displaying CR (0xd), LF (0xa), EOF (0x1a) and ESC (0x1b) by their string names enclosed in angle brackets, e.g <ESC>. To view all the string names (for characters 1 - 32 only), press F2. To view strictly text only press F2 again. F2 will cycle through these three types of filter. Mouse users can click on the filter number in the window title to execute F2. The 1 to 32 character string name filter is useful for viewing raw data packets or other communications data. To save space, the name <NUL> (0) is not displayed since this character is usually the most common in binary files. XED displays the first character of each paragraph in bold, allowing you to see the relative position of the text in the file. XED will display all characters from the current page and possibly some or all characters from the next page (to fill the text window). Characters from the next page are displayed in GREY attribute. You can scroll through the file with PGUP/PGDN. Mouse users can click on the arrows at the top right of the text window. Mouse users can click on any character in the window to go to the byte. For this to work properly, select filter number 3. To exit, press ESCAPE. s) Using markers To set a mark at the current offset, press Crtl+F9. XED will assign the next available mark from a list of 39. To remove this mark or any mark, go to the marker and press Crtl+F9 again. To retrieve a mark, press F9 (goto offset) and enter the mark number prefixed with a '%', for example: Enter offset: %3 will go to marker number 3. To view the mark list, press Shift+F9. XED will display each mark slot with the offset and hex byte at that offset in bold. Unused slots will display 'free'. Press ESCAPE to exit the list. Mouse users can click on a marker to retrieve (goto) that mark. When in the mark list window, you can press DEL to remove all marks. To retrieve the next mark, press Alt+F10. XED will go to the next logical active mark (the next mark after the last retrieved or set). To retrieve the previous mark, press Crtl+F10. This feature is useful when you wish to work at a few different offsets. Set a mark at each offset then move between them with these command keys. s) Using the unassembler The unassembler interprets the 80x86 and 80x87 family instruction set in both 16 and 32 bit modes. To unassemble the current file commencing at the current file offset, press Shift+F10. XED will disassemble as much data as is necessary to fill the window. PGUP and PGDN move the file pointer one paragraph which, depending on the instructions will decode to on average 10 lines. Crtl+PGDN/PGUP will move the file pointer one page (16 * (screen lines - 1)) bytes. XED will display assembly lines whose offsets begin on a paragraph boundary in bold attribute. This permits easier reading of the mnemonics generated. Clearly much of the data will not unassemble correctly. There are a number of reasons for this: a) The data are not opcodes - they may be program data or perhaps packed/compressed values; b) The unassembler has commenced disassembly at an odd or incorrect offset; c) The opcodes are co-processor instructions, or d) The opcodes are invalid. When the commencement offset is incorrect, the unassembler will not resolve instruction sequences properly. To correct this problem, press LEFT or RIGHT which will move the file offset back or forward one byte. Alternatively, you can press ESCAPE to exit the window, reposition the cursor and re -enter the unassembler. You will often find the instructions are now correct. This ability will permit disassembly of packed or oddly aligned instructions. Mouse users can click on the left/right arrows on the title line to realign. Crtl+LEFT will set the offset to the start of the paragraph and Crtl+RIGHT will set the offset to the end (0xf). The title line of the window will display the current view flags. These are: toggle key on off F2 '32' assume 32 bit code '16' assume 16 bit code F3 'FP' use 80x87 instructions 'EM' use 80x87 emulator F4 'NS' ignore operand sizes 'SZ' show operand sizes e.g. mov [0456],0076 e.g. mov word ptr [0456],0076 F5 'ND' ignore jump distances 'UD' show jump distances e.g. call 4560:0076 e.g. call far 4560:0076 To view 80x87 co-processor instructions (and not their emula- tions - the default), press F3. To view 32 bit instructions, press F2. To ignore byte/word pointer display, press F4. To ignore the distance of calls/jumps, press F5. Mouse users can click on the two letter flag tags on the title line to toggle these flags. Some instructions when expanded may not fit in the window. This is usually due to the operand size/distance, e.g. jmp far word ptr es:[bx+56] These lines will end in a small right hand arrow. To see the entire instruction sequence, toggle the 'SZ' or 'UD' flags. In 16 bit mode, offsets are displayed in the segmented form segment:offset, from the start of the file. In 32 bit mode, single 32 bit values are displayed. When the unassembler cannot interpret byte sequences, XED will display the sequence followed by '<invalid>' and then skip to the next byte. On a few rare occasions, the unassembler may get confused and print rubbish, which should be ignored. The is usually the result of multbyte opcode sequences when the second or subsequent bytes in the expected sequence are invalid. -+- 7. Program Environment. ======================= XED stores each paragraph separately in a dynamic linked list. Paragraphs are stored in virtual memory - some in DOS memory, maybe some in extended/expanded memory and that which doesn't fit in memory is buffered to disk. XED will attempt to retain paragraphs that are 'near' the currently selected paragraph by caching when necessary. Consequently, operations local to the current paragraph will be quicker than those at distant offsets and overall performance will be contingent on the capabilities of individual hard drives. Operations on large files (say 3Mb) that require XED to traverse the entire buffer may take longer depending on the speed of your hard drive. Large files will also take some time to read into the buffer as XED reads the ENTIRE file before editing can begin. XED will use the TMP or TEMP environment variables to locate the buffer file. This drive and directory must be able to store at least 3 times the size of the file to edit. RAMDRIVE users may need to reset this variable to their hard drive. XED has been tested on file sizes exceeding 20Mb and has performed with tolerable speed. WINDOWS users should find XED will operate with no problems (see the XED.ICO and XED.PIF files included with the release). The only possible interference may occur with file share permissions when writing to a file. XED was written in MS C++ 7.00. -+- 8. Keyboard Summary. ==================== Key Command UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT Position cursor < > / L R Shift/Rotate left/right -/+/~/` Dec/Inc/NOT/NEG byte ESC Quit ENTER Commit changes Alt+X DOS shell TAB Toggle ASCII/HEX Alt+U Undo paragraph Alt+A Undo All INS Edit paragraph PGUP/DN Next/Previous page Crtl+PGDN/UP Move +-10 pages F1 Help/menu Shift+F1 About XED F2 Insert paragraph Shift+F2 Delete paragraph F3 Copy paragraph below F4 Save file Shift+F4 Abort edit Crtl+F4 Save file as 'C' data F5 Binary display Shift+F5 Binary edit F6 Assignment expression Shift+F6 ASCII tables F7 Toggle 7/8 bit ASCII Shift+F7 Text filter F8 Search (again) Shift+F8 Search for... Crtl+F8 Search and Set marker F9 Goto mark or offset Shift+F9 Mark list Crtl+F9 Set/Remove mark F10 File Information Shift+F10 Unassemble Alt+F10 Goto Next mark Crtl+F10 Goto Previous mark Inline editing keys ------------------- Key Command RIGHT / LEFT Next/Previous character F3 Get last command HOME Start of line INS Toggle insert END End of line DEL Delete character Alt+D Erase to end of line Alt+K Kill (erase) line ENTER Accept edits and exit ESCAPE Abort edit -+- 9. Notes, Disclaimer. ===================== Users of XED v1.0a must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "XED v1.0a IS SUPPLIED AS IS. THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, DIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WHICH MAY RESULT FROM THE USE OF XED v1.0a. GOOD DATA PROCESSING PROCEDURE DICTATES THAT ANY PROGRAM BE THOROUGHLY TESTED WITH NON-CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM. ANY LIABILITY OF THE AUTHOR WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF THE REGISTRATION FEE TO REGISTERED USERS." XED v1.0a is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you find this program useful and find that you are using XED v1.0a and continue to use XED v1.0a after a reasonable trial period, PLEASE make a registration payment of $15 to DAVID L. DIGHT. Commercial users of XED v1.0a must register and pay for their copies of XED v1.0a within 30 days of first use. Site-Licence arrangements may be made by contacting DAVID L. DIGHT. Anyone distributing XED v1.0a for any kind of remuneration must first contact DAVID L. DIGHT at the address below for authorisation. This authorisation will be automatically granted to distributors recognised by the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering XED v1.0a immediately (However DAVID L. DIGHT must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to- date with the latest version of XED v1.0a). You are encouraged to pass a copy of XED v1.0a along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of the XED v1.0a system. If you do pass on a copy please make sure you include all the system files with documents. The file XED10A.EXE is a self-extracting executable archive and contains all files with this release. -+- The ASP provide special guidelines for author members to follow when they submit their programs for approval. Some of these provisions specify the ways in which the program may or may not notify the user of their registration commitments. Some methods used by programmers are not permitted. These include demo-crippling, date-bombs, disabled or devolved functionality. The ASP stipulates that all shareware releases must be fully functioning. XED uses the minimum amount of 'coersion' in the understanding that for the software to be evaluated fairly, the user must get a 'fair go'. The registration fee is not important. The actual 'cost' to develop shareware is very rarely recovered. What is important is the message that the registation sends to the author. _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER -+-