Structured binary data editor

[Jiri Svoboda]

As suggested by Martin Sucha, it would be useful to have a tool to view and edit structured binary data, such as program memory structures (task memory, core file), file system structures, etc.

I would suggest to create a library that would:

• define data structures (and API to manipulate them) to describe types (basic types, arrays, structs, unions)
• enumerate fields
• compute field offset (address)
• read and write fields
• convert between binary and textual representation
• find targets of links

The type definitions would be defined by plugins:

• plugin for reading DWARF data
• plugin for reading textual definitions
• plugin for specific set of types (e.g. ext2)

as well as definitions of other link types than pointer (e.g. block address).

Also plugins for different memory back-ends can be provided (possibly by the user):

• (core) file
• task memory (via Udebug)
• block device

On top of this library we can provide tools such as an interactive or command-based browser/editor. It could be also used as part of a debugger and possibly for other debugging purposes.