AXE Document Types

AXE 3 can handle storage devices, process memory, and huge files as well as regular files.

Document types other than plain files are opened from the File/Open Special... menu item. Currently available document types are listed below. Please note that it is not possible to write to process memory or physical disks in the 'home' operating systems, i.e. 95/98/ME.

Plain File

This is a normal, ordinary file, just like a document in AXE 2.1 and most other editors.

Huge File

AXE 3 should be very efficient reading even large ordinary files, but for fast access to really gigantic files, Huge File mode can be used. In this mode AXE does not allocate any storage for the file; it simply operates directly on the file on the disk. This means that edits are committed instantly and there is no need to save the file. Huge File mode should allow editing of files up to about 2 gigabytes.

Device

AXE 3 can edit storage devices directly. When you choose to open a document in this way, you will be given a dialog box that allows you to specify a device, one of: The dialog contains guidelines for how to specify the area you want to edit. What parameters can be accepted may depend on the particular type of disk drive.
When you save a document of this type, the data is written right back to the disk or memory at the appropriate offset. If that offset no longer means what it did when you started, the result will probably not bring a smile to your face. Caution is recommended when editing devices directly. Device editing generally doesn't work on 95/98/ME.

Process Memory

AXE is able to determine a process's memory usage and open any given block of allocated memory. When you select this document type, you will be given a list of processes and for each process a map of memory. You can select a memory block visually or select it from the list. If necessary you can also specify an offset manually. AXE does not keep this view of the process' memory up to date as you are editing (although AXE 4 may move in a 'debugger' direction). When you save, though, the memory block will be written back into the process' address space. This feature is useful for all sorts of things.