[PLUG] Displaying an arbitrary file in _both_ HEX and ASCII

[Richard Owlett]

On 01/22/2020 09:56 AM, Tomas Kuchta wrote:
> I cannot really help you with advice for the exact thing you are asking
> for: side by side hex and ASCII.
> 
> That being said, you should note that ASCII is not really used for a long
> time - as in decade or more. These days, characters/text are encoded mostly
> in UTF-8 with variable character code length. So, looking at a file with
> ASCII viewer/editor may not be that useful.

<Chuckle> I have prior knowledge that the character data is ASCII. There 
  are about a half dozen single byte codes evidently used for a as yet 
undetermined purpose.

> 
> I would be extremely careful editing strings with a hex editor - it may
> look like you are editing ASCII but you could easily corrupt the
> underlining UTF code sequence. Then bad things might happen, such as buffer
> overflow, etc, etc.

Yepp ;}
That's why no mention of "edit". "Display" was explicitly used.

Thanks

> 
> Hope it helps,
> Tomas
> 
> On Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 08:48 Richard Owlett <rowlett at cloud85.net> wrote:
> 
>> I'm running Debian 9.8 with MATE desktop.
>> I'm exploring a data file with the intention of eventually parsing it in
>> a useful fashion.
>>
>> Just downloaded ghex. I like the display format.
>> Its tools are inconvenient.
>>
>> I need to:
>>    1. Simultaneously display in _both_ HEX and ASCII format
>>    2. Know the current offset in *DECIMAL* format.
>>       {knowing the offset also in HEX might be nice}
>>    3. Goto to an offset - expressed in DECIMAL.
>>    4. Advance a specific number of bytes.
>>    5. Search for an ASCII string.
>>    6. Search for arbitrary sequence of bytes expressed as HEX.
>>
>> Suggested tool(s) in Debian repository?
>> TIA
>>