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Getting Started with HexView

HexView is an Avalonia control plus a sample application for binary inspection and editing.

It combines:

  • A UI control, HexViewControl, that renders offsets, byte columns, ASCII columns, selections, diffs, and annotations.
  • A reader pipeline based on ILineReader so large files can be streamed or memory-mapped.
  • An overlay/edit pipeline built on ByteOverlay, SelectionService, NavigationService, and EditJournal.

What You Will Build

By the end of Getting Started, you will have:

  • A working HexViewControl in XAML
  • A MemoryMappedLineReader feeding a ByteOverlayLineReader
  • A HexFormatter configured for width, encoding, separators, and address padding
  • Optional editing, search, bookmark, diff, and annotation workflows

Learning Path

  1. Installation
  2. Quickstart Control
  3. Quickstart Sample
  4. Architecture and Data Flow
  5. Overlay and Editing Model
  6. Formatting and Rendering
  7. Troubleshooting

Read-only vs Editable

Choose your integration style first:

  • Read-only viewer: set LineReader, HexFormatter, ToBase, and BytesWidth
  • Overlay-backed editor: add ByteOverlay, ByteWriteAction, EditedOffsetsProvider, and save/undo services
  • Sample-style editor: compose the control with SelectionService, NavigationService, HexSearchService, SaveService, and optional annotations

Key Idea

HexView separates file access, edit state, and rendering:

  • ILineReader controls how bytes are read
  • ByteOverlay controls how edits are projected
  • HexFormatter controls how bytes are represented
  • HexViewControl turns all of that into an interactive Avalonia surface

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