HxD: Place search and goto on toolbar

Wishlists for new functionality and features.
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abc223
Posts: 2
Joined: 30 Jan 2007 19:21

HxD: Place search and goto on toolbar

Post by abc223 »

Hi,

I like HxD a lot, and
I have 2 suggestions for features I like to have:

1. It would be nice to have search and goto functionality right at the toolbar (there is room for it), instead of opening a separate window. So search and goto can be done by just typing into their respective input boxes. Adding two shortcut keys that can take you to these boxes will be nice too, so you don't need to use the mouse to change focus.

2. When a file is opened in HxD, don't prevent other programs from opening/modifying it, but instead make HxD aware to changes in the file once HxD regains focus (change in timestamp should work), and offer to reload the file. I find it useful when I generate a binary file with my program, and then examine the file in HxD for correctness.

Thanks a lot for making such a great tool!
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1455
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: HxD: Place search and goto on toolbar

Post by Maël »

abc223 wrote: 1. It would be nice to have search and goto functionality right at the toolbar (there is room for it), instead of opening a separate window. So search and goto can be done by just typing into their respective input boxes. Adding two shortcut keys that can take you to these boxes will be nice too, so you don't need to use the mouse to change focus.
At the moment the toolbars look like this (when disk-editor is open):

Image

I.e. there isn't so much space, you could put the "search-bar" in another line though, but you have several options for searching, and you would have to omit most of them to fit it on a toolbar.
Considering this I think it is better to use a window for searching which you can quickly open by Ctrl+F (see menu).
abc223 wrote: 2. When a file is opened in HxD, don't prevent other programs from opening/modifying it, but instead make HxD aware to changes in the file once HxD regains focus (change in timestamp should work), and offer to reload the file.
This is a restriction due to the possibility to open files of any size. Letting other programs manipulate the loaded files, would mean that all edits done in HxD must be discarded (HxD can't know if the edits still apply and which positions changed and which didn't).
What I plan to do is add a "Open in HxD as read-only" entry in the Windows context menu, in this case HxD wouldn't lock the file.
abc223 wrote:Thanks a lot for making such a great tool!
Thanks.
abc223
Posts: 2
Joined: 30 Jan 2007 19:21

Re: HxD: Place search and goto on toolbar

Post by abc223 »

Hi Mael,

Thanks for your quick reply.

1. I didn't see that since I only opened files.

2. HxD already has an "Open as read only" option, but even when used, the file is locked. Thus, you'll need to just not lock the file, and when HxD regains focus, check whether the time stamp has changed, and if so, offer the user to reload the file (is that what F5 does?).

If I may suggest 2 more features I find useful...

3. Allow to split a window horizontally, so that multiple segments of a single file can simultaneously be viewed and worked on, perhaps using F6 as "switch frame" key to move from one "frame" to another (like in web browsers).

4. Add bookmarks, so that it is easy to jump from one place to another in a file. Useful when working on both the header and body portions of a file.

Thanks a lot.
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1455
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: HxD: Place search and goto on toolbar

Post by Maël »

abc223 wrote: 2. HxD already has an "Open as read only" option, but even when used, the file is locked.
The dev version fixes that.
abc223 wrote:3. Allow to split a window horizontally
Maybe in the future.
abc223 wrote:4. Add bookmarks, so that it is easy to jump from one place to another in a file.
Actually you can set bookmarks with Ctrl+Shift+X and jump to a bookmark using Ctrl+X, where X is a number between 0 and 9.
I plan to enhance bookmarks, like named bookmark list, jumping to next/prev bookmark ect.
pTd
Posts: 18
Joined: 22 Sep 2009 18:16

Re: HxD: Place search and goto on toolbar

Post by pTd »

Maël wrote: ...

Actually you can set bookmarks with Ctrl+Shift+X and jump to a bookmark using Ctrl+X, where X is a number between 0 and 9.
I plan to enhance bookmarks, like named bookmark list, jumping to next/prev bookmark ect.
I've only just discovered this. Looks very useful. Will the planned enhancements allow bookmarks to be saved/restored?
Owyn
Posts: 11
Joined: 11 Aug 2014 22:11

Re: HxD: Place search and goto on toolbar

Post by Owyn »

I plan to enhance bookmarks, like named bookmark list, jumping to next/prev bookmark ect.
Make it possible to save bookmarks for file and load it next time file is opened, I saw this in other editor and it was very usefull
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