Hack's main window
You are in Hack user's guide. Here you will find how to use Hack and what you can do with REXX.
Hack is an hex editor. An hex editor allows you to edit files or binary data as they are stored by the computer.
Hack's main window
The picture above shows Hack's main window. It is an MDI application, meaning that the main window may contains many child windows. There are several window types :
- File window
- View windows (Hex, ASCII and Asm)
- Dialog boxes (for user prompts)
- Information window (generated by REXX scripts)
- REXX editor
You can open as many file, as many view window, as many information windows as you want.
File window
When you open a file, Hack opens a File window for it. While the file is loading, all the buttons are disabled because every file is loaded by a separate thread. This allows you to load a big file and still be able to open another file to work with it.
When the file is finished loading, all the buttons are enabled.
From a File window, you can :
- save file modifications (if any)
- open different views of the file (so you can have a view on every interesting part of the file)
- minimize every view window related to the file window (by using the minimize button in the title bar)
- restore every view window related to the file window (by using the restore button in the title bar when it has been minimized)
- close every view window related to the file window (by using the close button in the title bar)
Hex view
ASCII view
Asm view
A view allows you to view (arf arf) and/or modify a file content (except for the Asm view).
Each window is resizable at will, contains cursor position in the title bar (this allows you to easily retrieve a particular window in the window menu).
When a character less than the space character have to be displayed, it is grayed rather than black.
Information window
An Information window is generally opened by a REXX script. It allows any script to display information about a particular file.
An information window is not modal. This means you can keep it open and navigate through the other windows.
You can also copy directly modify its content and copy it (or a selection) into the clipboard (using CTRL+C).
REXX editor
A REXX editor allows to create and/or modify any script designed for Hack.
By default, any new REXX script is saved in the "Application Data" directory of the user. Taken a user named "John Doe", the scripts would be saved into "C:\Documents and Settings\John Doe\Application Data\Hack\Functions" (according you are using Windows XP, which is installed on C:).
You can also edit scripts delivered with Hack to accomodate your needs.