-*- text -*-

bined - a command-line oriented editor for binary files
=======================================================

In spring 1989, when I had already a bit of C experience but was new
to Unix, I somehow wanted a binary file editor like the ones I knew
from MS-DOS. Doing a Curses (or, rather, termcap then on that
system) UI was beyond me, so I stuck to a simple command interface.

The main part of it came into being during one night at the university,
while two friends in the same room hacked something together for an
assignment. That was fun, and afterwards we went for a good
breakfast. Bined worked quite well quite soon. I even used it for
real from time to time.

When I needed something like it in 2015, I dug it out and found that
it could be made to compile and run, even with 64-bit sizes and
offsets, with few changes. Now, with some more changes (but still
few, to preserve that 80s feeling) to compile without warnings even
with C99, I think I can let it rest for another 25 years. Or so.


To edit a file, call bined with the file's pathname as the argument.
When you get the bined prompt, show what commands are available with
'h'. The whole UI is meant to be, while not intuitive (how could it
be?), discoverable, explorable. Type 'h command' to get more
information about a command.

Juergen Nickelsen <ni@w21.org> 2024-06-09