x64 Notepad replacement

[SYSTEM]

Nice post, Ruby.

@SYSTEM, "the only notable advantage of 64-bit binaries is higher performance"
First, not every 64 bit program has 'higher performance' than it's 32 bit counterpart (in fact most don't)

Yes, I was inaccurate here.

Second, another advantage is access to system files/folders of a 64 bit system that otherwise cannot be attained/accessed or properly/correctly executed; as an example I'll use the two notepads aforementioned by executing a hash command from both a 32 and 64 bit hashing utility:

Right, I had forgotten that.

Yet another advantage is ability to use more than two (or four with LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE) gigabytes of memory, but it's not a notable advantage in my opinion.

[Midas]

It has just come to my (notably feeble) attention that something I wrote in the first post of this topic is no longer true: Zabkat Editor2, which is included in recent versions (at least from 2.3.0.0) of payware file manager Xplorer2, can now be made portable simply by dropping a blank 'ed2.ini' file in its folder (there's also a new command line switch, if you care for that)...

Editor2 is a "no-frills", lightweight yet surprisingly handy notepad type editor offered both in 32 and 64bit versions (for a video demo, see http://www.zabkat.com/blog/wink/ed2.htm).

Although Editor2 is freeware, it doesn't have a separate download location, and has to be extracted from the Xplorer2 trial package -- downloadable at http://www.zabkat.com. (BTW, the corresponding files are: ed2skin.png, Editor2.txt, editor2_64.exe, editor2_64.exe.manifest, editor2_UC.exe, editor2_UC.exe.manifest.)

After first run, the contents of 'ed2.ini' provides further customization than what's available in Editor2's GUI -- e.g., if you don't need the default text codepage conversion presented in the 'View | Use 1253 (ANSI Cyrillic)', you could change it to UTF-8 Unicode by altering it to 'nAltCP=65001'; there are also options to alter the default date an time formats ('szCustomDateFormat' and 'szCustomTimeFormat'; unfortunately the former doesn't include any separating space, nor does it honor a blank character a the end of the string, so I had to change it to "yyyy-MM-dd_" to get the ISO standard format).

[NickR]

Thanks Midas - Excellent find

Editor2 packs some extremely useful features:

• Search and REPLACE around EOL (or any other Hex chars)
  Hexview - (rudimentary but hey!)
  External Viewer - easily allows a call to your own progs
  • which might simply modify the file being edited eg spellchecker
    or compile it - making a simple IDE
    or present a menu of other progs (a soup-to-nuts IDE ?)
  Incredibly small filesize circa 200 KB (mem usage 1MB running)
  more useful features in the readme

And BOTH x64 and x32 Versions !

Most exciting editor I've seen for ages (I know, I must get out more)

My only gripe, so far, is that Replace isn't the usual Ctrl+H but Ctrl+R

Great Editor

[Midas]

Never mind the outdoors, NickR, I totally share your admiration of Editor2 -- I've been using it on and off for years now. It is a bit rough around the edges (see below), but then it beats most of the competition on the features per square inch ratio.

Pet peeves of mine are the inability the assign a default file extension and the lack of hard/column text wrapping option. OTOH, if you apply UPX to the 32 bit binary (it won't work on the 64 bit one...) it shrinks to 67K, meaning it will launch instantly on current day computers.

Last note to point out that commercial text behemoth UltraEdit uses CTRL+R for Replace, too. Maybe Editor2 keyboard shortcuts will turn customizable on a future version (given the time it took for it to become natively portable, I seriously doubt it); until then, you might get lucky with your hex editor...

EDIT: what I wrote two paragraphs back got my contrarian gears in motion, so I decided to check for x64 executable packers.

I found only a pair of them, both freeware:

• - PESpin (native x64 GUI packer, currently v1.21 -- dl @ http://pespin.w.interia.pl/)
  
  - MPress (a CLI packer, currently v2.19 -- dl @ http://www.matcode.com/mpress.htm; there's a free MPress GUI v0.2, too).

I ran both with various results using 'Editor2_64.exe' (222 208b) as test subject.

• . My best PESpin result (options: windows loader, aPLib compression, CRC protection): 136 704b, ~38% less...
  
  . The best MPress GUI result (options: "Search the best LZMA parameters" only): 94 208b, ~57% less!

[SYSTEM]

EDIT: what I wrote two paragraphs back got my contrarian gears in motion, so I decided to check for x64 executable packers.

I found only a pair of them, both freeware:

• - PESpin (native x64 GUI packer, currently v1.21 -- dl @ http://pespin.w.interia.pl/)
  
  - MPress (a CLI packer, currently v2.19 -- dl @ http://www.matcode.com/mpress.htm; there's a free MPress GUI v0.2, too).

I ran both with various results using 'Editor2_64.exe' (222 208b) as test subject.

• . My best PESpin result (options: windows loader, aPLib compression, CRC protection): 136 704b, ~38% less...
  
  . The best MPress GUI result (options: "Search the best LZMA parameters" only): 94 208b, ~57% less!

Keep in mind that size is not everything. See http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... f=2&t=3929.

[Midas]

Keep in mind that size is not everything. See http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... f=2&t=3929.

I'm well aware of that, but not much else to judge in my very limited test. Anyway, thanks for the pointer to m^(2) impressive write up -- I just wish he'd mentioned x64 compression...