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- Zaphod, a binary editor for AMIGA computers
- Release 1.0
-
- Holger Schemel
- aeglos@valinor.ms.sub.org
-
- June 3, 1994
-
-
- Contents
-
- 1. Copyright and all that
- 2. About Zaphod
- 3. Installation
- 4. Starting Zaphod from Workbench and Shell
- 5. The usage of the program
- 5.1 The main window of Zaphod
- 5.1.1 The gadgets
- 5.1.2 The edit field
- 5.2 The menues
- 5.2.1 Project
- 5.2.2 Edit
- 5.2.3 Settings
- 5.2.4 Files
- 6. Credits
- 7. Bug reports and others
-
-
- 1. Copyright and all that
-
- Zaphod is copyrighted software (C) 1993-94 by Holger Schemel.
-
- The program may be freely distributed with the following restrictions: The
- The archive and all its contents may not be changed, and no files may be
- removed or added to the archive.
- All rights reserved.
-
- No guarantee of any kind is given that the programs described in this docu-
- ment are 100\% reliable. You are using this material at your own risk. The
- author can not be made responsible for any damage which is caused by using
- these programs.
-
- This package can be included in public domain collections, including those
- on CD-ROM. The distribution file may be uploaded to Bulletin Board Systems
- or FTP servers. None of the program nor parts of it may be included or used
- in commercial programs without a written permission from the author.
-
- If you have paid more than $5, it's yout own fault.
-
- The usage of this program close by nuclear power stations, the usage of
- weapons and military equipment and the consumption of radio active hazel-
- nuts is your own risk!
-
- 2. About Zaphod
-
- Zaphod is a file editor for binary files in the tradition of classic pro-
- grams like ``FileZap'' and ``NewZap''. However, it is written to use fea-
- tures of AmigaOS 2.0 so you need this or a higher version of the Amiga ope-
- ration system to use this program. The usage with OS 3.0 or higher should
- not make any problems.
-
- This file editor lets you edit several files at a time. The files you want
- to edit can be marked with the mouse button while holding the 'shift' key
- right at the start from Workbench, chosen from the ASL file requester,
- chosen by dropping their icons into the window or, if you started Zaphod
- from shell, by specifying the files as parameters after the program name.
-
- The program window of Zaphod opens on the Workbench, on a given public
- screen or on its own public screen which will then be named ZAPHOD.1 (or
- ZAPHOD.x, if you started Zaphod x times with its own screen). If you star-
- ted Zaphod on a public screen, you can drop icons into it by simply drop-
- ping them on the application icon, which has the name ZAPPICON.1 or
- ZAPPICON.x. You can get Zaphod's public screen into the foreground by
- double-clicking on its application icon.
-
- The whole settings of the program can be given and were saved in the Tool-
- Types in the program icon. If you start it from shell, give the settings as
- program parameters. At the time there is no support for an extra configura-
- tion file, so if you want to start it from shell regularly, make an alias
- in 's:user-startup' of the form 'alias zaphod zaphod <configuration parame-
- ters>'.
-
- 3. Installation
-
- Just copy the whole drawer at the place you want to have it. It's enough to
- have the files ``Zaphod'' and ``Zaphod.info''.
-
- If you have installed AmigaOS 2.1 or above, you can copy the file
- ``zaphod.catalog'' into ``LOCALE:Catalogs/<your language>''. At this time,
- there is only a catalog for German language.
-
- Additionally, there are some extra fonts in the ``Zaphod/fonts'' directory.
- The ``topaz'' variations are non-proportional, the ``tripaint'' fonts are
- proportional ones. Just try them out (They must be copied to your local
- ``FONTS:'' directory). These fonts are designed to be small or thin or
- both, so you can use them to display more data in the Zaphod edit window
- than with the standard system fonts.
-
- 4. Starting Zaphod from Workbench and Shell
-
-
- The ToolTypes are the same as the shell parameters, that means if you have
- a ToolType of the form 'TOOLTYPE=PARAMETER', then you can give this exactly
- as a shell parameter (you can use a blank instead of the ``='').
- (See the descriptions of the menu 'Settings' for more information.)
-
- The ToolTypes are:
-
- LEFT:
- Left position the window opens.
- TOP:
- Top position the window opens.
- LINES:
- The number of lines displayed in the edit window.
- COLUMNS:
- The number of longwords (four data bytes) per line in the edit win-
- dow.
- TEXTFONTNAME:
- Here you can choose the text font of the Zaphod window. '<default>'
- uses the system font choosen in your system preferences.
- TEXTFONTSIZE:
- Choose the size of the font. {\tt <default>} uses the system size
- again.
- EDITFONTNAME:
- Here you can choose the edit font, which is used in the edit field
- of the Zaphod window. '<default>' uses the non-proportial system
- font again. It is recommended to use one of the fonts shipped with
- Zaphod to be able to display more characters than with the system
- fonts. If you don't like them, you can get the font editor FEd from
- AmigaOS 1.3 and create your own fonts for Zaphod.
- EDITFONTNAME:
- The size of the chosen edit font.
- PUBSCREEN:
- Here you can specify the name of a public screen on which Zaphod
- shall open its window on. If you specify 'WBENCH', the window is
- opened on the Workbench. With 'OWNSCREEN' you can advise Zaphod to
- open its own public screen, which is then given the name ZAPHOD.x,
- where x is the number of the instance of Zaphod with an own public
- screen.
- EXPERTMODE:
- This parameter tells Zaphod how often it should ask for confirma-
- tion. You should start with 'NORMAL'. If you don't want to see too
- many questions ``Do you really want...?'', then choose 'MODERATE'.
- With 'EXPERT', Zaphod asks no more questions; only choose this
- option if you really know what you're doing.
- HEXDESIGN:
- Choose 'UPPER' to have upper case characters in the hexadecimal
- edit field and 'LOWER' to have lower case characters.
- SIZEGADGET:
- Choose 'RIGHT' to have the wider window border with the size gadget
- on the right window border and 'BOTTOM' to have it on the bottom
- border.
- LOADMODE:
- You can choose 'INSERT_ONE', 'INSERT_ALL' or 'APPEND_ALL'. See
- 'Settings / Files' for a description.
- CLIPMODE:
- Choose 'INTERNAL' or 'EXTERNAL' for an internal or external clip-
- board handling.
- CLIPNR_INTERNAL:
- Choose the clip number used for internal clipboard handling. Don't
- choose 0 here, because that's the clip number of the system clip-
- board.
- CLIPNR_EXTERNAL:
- Choose the clip number used for external clipboard handling. Better
- don't change it from the default value 0 here, because that's the
- clip number of the system clipboard.
- ADDRESSBOX:
- Choose 'YES' or 'NO' to have the addresses field in the edit window
- displayed or not.
- VIEWMODE:
- Choose 'HEX', 'ASCII' or 'HEX&ASCII' to have the file contents dis-
- played as hexadecimal values, ASCII characters or both.
-
- If you start Zaphod from shell, you can specify up to ten files which will
- then be loaded to the file buffers. If you give a question mark here,
- Zaphod will give you a command pattern known from the system commands.
-
- 5. The usage of the program
-
- 5.1 The main window of Zaphod
-
- After starting Zaphod, you see the main window with the edit field and some
- gadgets. If you have already given some file names at the start, the first
- one will be displayed in the edit window (if it can be opened).
-
- The file name of the file that is currently in the edit buffer will be dis-
- played in the title of the window.
-
- 5.1.1 The gadgets
-
- If you want to search for a byte sequence in the file, use the search gad-
- gets below of the edit field. Type the byte sequence into the string gad-
- get; you can use ASCII characters or hexadecimal values or both mixed.
- Hexadecimal values must be two numbers preceeded with a `$' or a `0x'. If
- these special characters are part of the search string, just put them into
- quotation marks.
-
- Some examples:
- $20$20$3c
- 0x200x200x3c
- Test$00
- $20"Hello, World"0x00
-
- To start searching, click onto the ``Search'' gadget or press the under-
- lined character ('s'). If the search text was found, the cursor will be
- placed on the first character of the text found in the file buffer. If the
- search was succesful can also be seen at the ``Status'' field.
-
- The search directions can be chosen with the corresponding gadget. At the
- search from the start or from the end, the status of the gadget will be
- changed to searching behind/before the cursor to allow easy sequential
- searching.
-
- Choose case dependency with the corresponding gadget.
-
- At the left side, there are two gadgets showing the actual cursor position
- in the file buffer and the length of the whole file. You can jump directly
- to a certain file position with the first of these two gadgets.
-
- Below of the gadgets for text searching there are gadgets for replacing
- file contents with some other data. Just type the new byte sequence into
- the ``Replace'' string gadget (with the same format as the search text) and
- choose ``Replace'' instead of ``Search''.
-
- With the gadget ``Replacemode'', you can choose if all matching texts shall
- be replaced, only the next matching text or if there should be a requester
- for each match.
-
- All gadgets can be used by pressing the appropriate key, which is the key
- in the gadget text that is underlined.
-
- 5.1.2 The edit field
-
- The edit field consists of up to three parts: the address field, the hexa-
- decimal field and the ASCII field. All three can be scrolled with the
- scrollbar at the right.
-
- If you click into the edit field, you can type input directly into the file
- buffer (where you can only use the number keys and the keys 'a' to 'z' and
- 'A' to 'Z' in the hex field).
-
- With the tabulator key, you can switch between the hex and ASCII field.
- Move the cursor with the usual cursor keys, Shift-Up/Down moves to the be-
- ginning/end of the file, Ctrl-Up/Down moves one page up or down.
-
- 5.2 The menues
-
- There are the following menues:
-
- 5.2.1 Project
-
- The ``Project'' menu has the following items:
-
- New:
- Clears the actual file buffer (not the file itself). All other file
- buffers remain untouched.
- Open
- Opens a new file. Uses the ASL file requester.
- Save:
- Saves the file under the name it was opened as or under the name it
- was already saved once.
- Save As...:
- Like ``Save'', but asks for a file name with the ASL file requester.
- Print:
- (Not yet implemented.)
- Print As...:
- (Not yet implemented.)
- About...:
- Short description about the program and the author and the name of
- the screen the program is opened on.
- User...:
- Information about the user of the program.
- Quit:
- Quit the program. If there are any file buffers that are modified
- but unsaved, you will get a warning.
-
- 5.2.2 Edit
-
- These are the usual block operation/clipboard functions (to indicate a
- block, just mark it with the mouse as usual), as there are:
-
- Cut:
- Cut the marked block and put it into the clipboard.
- Copy:
- Copy the marked block into the clipboard.
- Paste:
- Paste the contents of the clipboard to the edit field (insert them
- at the cursor position).
- Erase:
- Erase the marked block without touching the clipboard.
- Undo:
- Undo the last block operation.
-
- 5.2.3 Settings
-
- The ``Settings'' menu contains the following items:
-
- Text font:
- With 'automatic', choose the system font. With 'user selected',
- choose a selected font for window and gadget text. With
- 'select...', you can choose that font.
- Edit font:
- The submenu items are the same and have the same functions like the
- options in the menu above, but you can make decisions about the
- font used in the edit field.
- Addresses:
- Specify if you want to have the addresses field or not.
- Viewmode:
- Specify if you want to see the file buffer contents as hexadecimal
- values, ASCII characters or both.
- Hex number design:
- Here you can choose if you prefer upper or lower case characters
- for the hexadecimal part of the edit field.
- Border for Sizegadget:
- Chooses the position of the wider border of the window (either at
- the right or at the bottom). Lets you gain some more horizontal
- pixels if you need them to display one more column.
- Clipboard:
- Specify if you want internal or external clipboard handling. With
- external clipboard handling enabled, you can copy data to and from
- other applications.
- Files:
- Here you can choose the behavior of Zaphod when loading several
- files at one time. They can be completely appended to the other
- file buffers, completely inserted or appended except the first one
- which goes to the actual file buffer.
- Auto-resize window:
- Re-calculates the window dimensions and proportions. Useful if you
- have changed a font or the window size and want to optimize the
- window size now.
- Reset to default:
- Resets all settings to the default settings.
- Load settings:
- Loads the settings from the program icon. This doesn't work if you
- have started the program from the shell.
- Save settings:
- Saves the settings to the program icon. This doesn't work if you
- have started the program from the shell.
-
- 5.2.4 Files
-
- Here you can directly choose each file buffer. There is always one menu
- item with an ``(empty)'' file buffer which can be chosen to drop a file by
- its icon into it or load a new file from the ``Open'' menu.
-
- 6. Credits
-
- Thanks to all beta testers, who helped me much with sometimes detailed bug
- reports, suggestions or comments about the program style.
-
- Special thanks goes to Albert Weinert for his program ``KitCat'' which
- allows easy creation of localization catalogs, and to Dr. Peter Kittel for
- his ``Amiga-Glossar''.
-
- 7. Bug reports and others
-
- If you find errors (in the program itself or in the documentation), want to
- write a new language catalog for your language, want to have new features
- or the source code or have other suggestions, write to:
-
-
- Holger Schemel
- Sennehof 28
- 33659 Bielefeld (Senne I)
- Germany
- Phone: +49 (0)5 21 / 49 32 45
-
- E-Mail:
- aeglos@valinor.ms.sub.org (at home)
- aeglos@uni-paderborn.de (university)
- q99492@pbhrzx.uni-paderborn.de (university)
-
-
- E-Mail preferred.
-