Hex Viewer
Dec. 2023
While working on a different project for one of my university classes, I found myself needing to examine files at a binary level. Usually, I would just download something that already exists and get on with my life, but I realized I didn't like many of the existing options for hex viewers. I decided it would be an interesting side project to develop my own.
I was using a Linux computer at the time, and I am just a big fan of C, so I decided to write my hex viewer in C. I wanted to avoid using third-party libraries or dependencies so I stuck with the standard C library. This was easy since a hex viewer is a relatively straightforward tool.
My requirements were therefore:
- Use only what is available in the C standard library
- Keep the code as simple as possible
- Display 16 bytes per line, with a corresponding ASCII representation
- Show the beginning byte address/location within the file for each line
The resulting code ended up being just over 100 lines long, with an executable size of ~16 kB when compiled with GCC on Debian 12.