A long time ago, on the Apple ][, there was a famous utility for editing disks, for example for modifying games saves (adding lives!), or removing disk protections (performing the allowed "anti-coffee" copy):
- It was known as DISKFIXER, (C) 1980, The Image Producers, Inc., A Quicksilver Softsystems utility.
- And later as DISK EDIT, (C) 1985, The Software Factory, Inc. (in which the help function still mentioned DISKFIXER, and the user interface was almost identical, so I assume it was a direct successor).
40+ years later, I needed an idea for testing Tkinter GUIs for Python applications. Having just remade the Unix strings utility, I thought of re-implementing my beloved DiskFixer.
So here's a first partial version:
- it has fully functional view modes
- but it still lacks the edit functions (that I'll implement in 2022)
I'll also:
- provide a Python Package for easy install
- an internationalized version with at least French and English languages
So far, the following commands have been implemented:
CHUNK SELECTION:
[DOWN/RIGHT ARROW] Next chunk of file.
[UP/LEFT ARROW] Previous chunk of file.
CHUNK VIEW:
[A] ASCII characters view mode.
[B] Mode ASCII-hexa (half screen each).
[H] Hexadecimal bytes view mode.
GENERAL MODE:
[N] Toggle hexa/decimal numbering.
[Q] Quit the FileFixer to monitor.
[S] Select a new file (modified from the original "Slot and drive specification").
[Y] Toggle ASCII filter.
KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS:
[CTRL-H] <===> [LEFT ARROW] Key
[CTRL-J] <===> [DOWN ARROW] Key
[CTRL-K] <===> [UP ARROW] Key
[CTRL-Q] <===> [Q] Key
[CTRL-U] <===> [RIGHT ARROW] Key
NEW COMMANDS:
[!] Cycle colors (from green, amber, gray, inverted gray monitors)
You can try the original versions with the excellent AppleWin Apple ][ emulator.