XPost: comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.os.windows-10   
   From: janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com   
      
   On 07.02.2025 06:57, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:   
   > On Thu, 6 Feb 2025 23:58:04 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 2025-02-06 21:57, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> I have done direct editing of binary data in Emacs.   
   >>   
   >> And I have done so in MsDOS times with primitive text editors, just   
   >> because that was what I had. To change some string.   
   >   
   > Did they preserve null characters in the file?   
      
   Cannot tell for MS DOS environments, but why is that "binary" editing   
   noteworthy in the first place? - Though I may be spoiled by using Vim   
   where you can of course also operate on files containing any control   
   characters (including ASCII NUL).   
      
   The likely more interesting thing is probably to provide more advanced   
   features in _dedicated_ hex editors. - I recall some tools where you   
   could edit either the hex values (on the left part of the screen) or   
   its string representation (on the right part of the screen). It would   
   also make sense to navigate on the binary text in units of "bytes" and   
   "byte" offsets.   
      
   In Vim, for example, you either edit the string texts directly. Or use   
   any transform tool prior (typical is 'xxd') to operate on hex values.[*]   
   (This is of course simple since you just put the respective Vim command   
   on some key, to switch to/from hex representation.[**])   
      
   In that respect the poster is correct that you operate on text anyway,   
   whether it's the original text (with control characters like NUL) or   
   a transformed text (with a hex layout). - But again; a dedicated "hex   
   editor" tool might have advantages; it could show data in more than   
   one representation, navigate in the binary file more sensibly, etc.   
      
   At least for Vim the distinction between "text" and "binary" files is   
   nonetheless not that important, at least if you are just concerned   
   about control characters.[***]   
      
   Janis   
      
   [*] But note that editing the _informative strings_ in hex mode won't   
   change the file; in 'xxd' based hex-mode you have to edit the _hex_   
   value so that the contents are changed. (There's the difference from   
   such more powerful hex editors I mentioned above.)   
   Note also that since the "hex-mode" is not a built-in mode in Vim you   
   can use arbitrary hex transformation tools. But 'xxd' is the commonly   
   used tool with Vim; with that tool you can (for example) also display   
   files as binary information, but strangely the function to revert the   
   format to store it isn't possible ("sorry, cannot revert this type of   
   hexdump"), which is particularly sad since it would be so simple to   
   have it supported by 'xxd'.   
      
   [**] Makes sense in case you do such hex-editing regularly. (I don't   
   need that feature; had used it in decades probably only once.)   
      
   [***] For, say, media data files you'd anyway use some media-specific   
   (domain specific) "editor".   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)