Superb Diskeditor and a comment

General comments that are neither bug reports nor feature requests.
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Magrit
Posts: 4
Joined: 13 May 2008 08:59

Superb Diskeditor and a comment

Post by Magrit »

Dear Mr. Maël Hörz,

You HxD is a superb software. I got the recomendation from Gizo newsletter.

My only question is: I'm using the Beta version 1.7.1.0 and to the best of my knowledge it dosen't create any ini file.

This is a ready to use software. I like this feature very much in comparison to other tools.

However, in the new portable version 1.7.6.3 the portable version creates an INI file. What is the difference between the two version, since I am greatly think that the old version 1.7.1.0 was much better in this terms.

Best wishes,
Magrit

p.s - I'm still using the beta version.
Maël
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Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Post by Maël »

Hello Magrit,

The new version writes the settings in an INI-file instead of using the registry. That means if you put HxD on an USB-stick (or any other portable drive) your settings will be stored on the stick too. Independent to which computer you connect the USB-stick, HxD will use the same settings. This is not possible when using the registry since it is stored on the local harddisk of a computer and not the USB-stick.

What exactly do you dislike about the INI solution? The message box that pops up once at the first start?

Regards, Maël.
Magrit
Posts: 4
Joined: 13 May 2008 08:59

Post by Magrit »

Dear Maël,

Thank you very much. Is it possible to make a generic setting that will not need the existence of an ini file? If not, your solution is fine with me and I will start to use the new version.

Best,
Magrit
Maël
Site Admin
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Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Post by Maël »

Hello Magrit,
Magrit wrote:Is it possible to make a generic setting that will not need the existence of an ini file?
What I could do is that no INI file is created as long as you don't change the default settings (and create an INI-file as soon as something is changed.)

Technically, I could switch back to the registry, but then the portable version of HxD wouldn't be really portable anymore, so that kind of defeats its purpose.

Regards, Maël.
Magrit
Posts: 4
Joined: 13 May 2008 08:59

Post by Magrit »

Dear Maël,

Your solution sounds great!
looking forward to download this version of HxD!

Once again, great software. My favorite diskeditor! :P

Best,
Magrit
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1454
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Post by Maël »

I forgot one thing: There is a recent file list and a search/replace history. So when a file was opened in HxD and you close it it will try to write those histories to the INI-file.

Now since there isn't any INI-file where should HxD read the setting from that it shouln't keep any histories...

I'll look if I can find an alternate solution.

How about just creating the INI-file at first start without asking the user for confirmation?
Magrit
Posts: 4
Joined: 13 May 2008 08:59

Post by Magrit »

What about a clean Hxd, meaning, a constant configuration without any file history or recent open file. This version will create an INI file if the user will change the standard configuration.

What do you think?

Best,
Magrit
DVV
Posts: 14
Joined: 17 Jan 2008 11:24

Post by DVV »

File history such as find/replace history are specific to a computer, don't you think so? I mean, if you are searching for "AA BB CC" in file "c:\temp\data_file.hex" on your current computer, your another computer probably even does not contain this file, so what is the sence to store this history information?
The best solution, IMHO, is to store all the history information in a registry, whereas the program settings must be stored in the ini-file.
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1454
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Post by Maël »

Offering yet another edition of HxD (with constant configuration) would make maintenance more difficult since I would have to test and support 3 editions of HxD (portable, constant, installable).

The suggestion with storing the histories in the registry is not bad, but since there is no uninstaller for the portable edition it would remain there even when you delete HxD. Also, I think it is a bit confusing to spread the config across several places. I'm sure somebody would complain about this, especially since the portable edition was requested by several people with the emphasis to not modify the computer it is used on (just write to the portable drive/USB-stick).

What could maybe work is to have an option to put HxD in a "no configuration-saving"-mode. That would be achieved by writing a value inside the HxD.exe itself. The only concern about that are virus scanners. Would need to check if they flag that kind of EXE-modification as suspicious.
DVV
Posts: 14
Joined: 17 Jan 2008 11:24

Post by DVV »

Maël wrote:That would be achieved by writing a value inside the HxD.exe itself
Personally I don't see how it differs from writing to ini-file ;)
IMHO, writing to ini-file is better than modification of the exe-file, because the first choice is a standard operation whereas the second looks similar to some kind of "hack".
Maël
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Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Post by Maël »

You are right, that would be a hack. Given the contradictory requests (and the mentioned issues) I think I leave it the way it is.
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