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In article <1991Apr18.204216.6994@ibmpcug.co.uk> gmurray@ibmpcug.co.uk (G Murray) writes:
} I can't comment on Epsilon, but the main problem that I have noted with
}both Brief and EMACS is that they can't handle Nulls. Brief seems to manage
}every other possible byte value in a file except for 0x00.

Epsilon has absolutely no trouble with any character; just type ^Q^@ for 0x00.

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   In article <1991Apr18.204216.6994@ibmpcug.co.uk> gmurray@ibmpcug.co.uk (G Murray) writes:
   } I can't comment on Epsilon, but the main problem that I have noted with
   }both Brief and EMACS is that they can't handle Nulls. Brief seems to manage
   }every other possible byte value in a file except for 0x00.

Which emacs are you referring to?  GNU emacs handles nulls.  From what I just
read about freemacs, the author claims that it can edit its own binary so I
assume it can handle nulls as well.

Now for a few thoughts about binary editors:
It seems to me that it would be very easy to write a binary editor-- easier
than writing an ordinary text editor.  I believe that text editors must worry
about the appearance of the displayed text whereas this should not be a
concern for a  binary editor-- just format everything in columns to make it
readable.   Am I too naive here?  It seems that editors which allow binary
files to be edited (eg GNU emacs) do not take this approach.  I would much
rather edit a file which formats the binary characters in nice easy to read
columns. 

--
John

  bitnet: davis@ohstpy
internet: davis@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu

>>>>> On 20 Apr 91 22:21:55 GMT, davis@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu ("John E. Davis") said:

John> It seems that editors which allow binary files to be edited (eg
John> GNU emacs) do not take this approach.  I would much rather edit
John> a file which formats the binary characters in nice easy to read
John> columns.

These GNU Emacs add-ons sound like they do:

		   Emacs Lisp Code Apropos -- "hex"


hexl-mode	  89-05-24
     Keith Gabryelski, <ag@cbmvax.commodore.com>
     tut.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/s-is/misc/hexl-mode.el.Z
                                                       [^as-is !]

     Edit a file in a hex dump format.
hex (1.0)	  89-05-29
     andy@ernie.berkeley.edu, <slcpi!treed, treed@shearson.com>
     tut.cis.ohio-state.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/misc/hex.Z
     Binary editing mode.

In article <1991Apr18.204216.6994@ibmpcug.co.uk> gmurray@ibmpcug.co.uk (G Murray) writes:

    I can't comment on Epsilon, but the main problem that I have noted with
   both Brief and EMACS is that they can't handle Nulls.

Note that the EMACS Graham is talking about is not Freemacs.  Freemacs
doesn't engage in gratuitious file munging (like line limits and character
set limits).  Freemacs can edit binary files.

--
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