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 "You can fit twelve hundred of me on a 5¼″ floppy!" |
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DTE has been expanded. Version 3.4.9 now includes font selection and
startup state windowed/maximized. This is accomplished by
using a custom setup tool called DTE_SETUP.
DTE_SETUP modifies the DTE executable directly via open
tails added to DTE's framework.
DTE compiled now sits at 987 bytes, though without any
font setting. After building DTE, DTE_SETUP needs to be
run at least once to choose a font, font-size, and startup
mode.
DTE_SETUP writes the startup state at byte 996, the font
name at byte 1000, and the font size at byte 1020,
expanding the configured executable to 1024 bytes.
Several attempts were made to try and keep font selection under 1000 bytes (just because) but all failed. DTE_SETUP extends the configured executable to 1024 bytes so there is room for the configuration tail.
There was still enough space "back in the nines" to allow a custom start-up state to be either windowed or maximized. Because of the effects of writing to the exe with DTE_SETUP, the final size is 1024 whether we add the startup mode or not. Might as well have it then.
The results are in: DTE is now a functioning notepad-like editor in 1024 bytes with:
- font selection
- startup mode selection
- new file creation (
"f"default file) - printing
- file search with wrapping
- replace text using search and clipboard
- unsaved file protection
- save button in the system menu
- quick save with
F9 X!(X Bang) throw away changes- an unsaved file indicator
"*"
Crinkler is now part of the project’s design. Instructions are deliberately arranged so repeated structures fold together at link time, making compression itself part of the coding process.
DTE has officially entered new territory. Now sitting 1024 bytes, it has the following capabilities added:
- font selection and startup-up via DTE_SETUP
- new file creation from the GUI (default file named
"f") - highlight any text and search with
F2andF3 - search wraps after beginning/end of file
- quick-save with
F9 - GUI
"X"icon disabled on unsaved file X!added to system menu "throw out changes"F12sends the file to the active printer
If you are interested in more projects that try to make basic utilities in very small packages, check out Sub-K a very small web server and E a very small telnet server.
A printable user manual in PDF is included with this distribution.
DTE 3.0 is a complete rewrite from a blank file up through to the
full-featured editor presented here with version 3.4.9. It's
features include all of the above-listed plus:
Fewer imports, persistent file handle, static class window, no includes, file I/O via RICHEDIT20W, and by special appearance:
There is no flag to set, a * is simply appended to the title on file
change and removed on save.
In the
DTE
folder (I forgot to name it "src") enter the folder
3_0
for the complete walk-up from a blank file to version 3.4.9.
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The New File creation solution literally came to me in a dream. It just
appeared, and it worked. It's a bit unusual to start with a pre-named
blank file, but it works great and only cost 4 bytes. You will see that
in version 3.3.2
dte30_032.asm.
With new-found confidence from a dream-state I started to think about
what other much-needed features could be added without the machinery of
dialog boxes and prompts. The file search by highlighted text was born,
and the rather unorthodox X! X Bang "throw away changes" ability was added.
It was now possible to bring back the "disable X if unsaved file"
previously rejected experiment from many versions ago. We now have cheap
file protection from accidental program closings. The
F9 Quick Save can be found in version 3.3.7
dte30_037_F9_SAVE.asm
and the X Bang Quit override is in 3.3.8
dte30_038_X_BANG.asm.
Find was intentional; Replace was a discovery. To avoid dialog launching, Find simply searches for the currently highlighted text. To search for a word or phrase not currently in the document, just put it in the top of the file and delete it later. When coding, you could make a little search library in comments like:
/*
mainEntry
drawTable
*/
Replace was thought to be impossible without adding machinery until it
was realized that DTE already had a rudimentary Replace already. Just
copy the intended replacement text to clipboard, then highlight a search
term and press F2 or F3. The found term will already automatically be
highlighted and Ctrl-V immediately replaces that text. In order to replace
next instance, press Ctrl-Home to go back to the top and highlight the
search term again. Press F2/F3 again and repeat. It might seem clunky
at first glance, but in practice it works pretty decently. There is no
"Replace All", sorry.
Printing took forever to figure out. It needed to be extremely simple,
or discarded as an idea. I remembered that I had seen Microsoft Office
allow right-click on a file and choosing Print. After much thrashing about
and many failed attempts a solution was found: Let Notepad do it. Literally
just call notepad /p "C:\whatever\file.txt". To ensure that Notepad doesn't
print an old version of the file, F12 (print) is disabled unless the file
has been saved. You can't choose a printer from DTE. The default printer is
always used. You can find the Printing addition in version 3.3.9
dte30_039_F12_WINEXEC_PRINT.asm.
I'll stick a PDF printed from DTE in the repo because hey, DTE can do that now.
Well it was, originally. Allow me explain. Version 1.0 of DTE is experimental. Crinkler in that version really was just tacked on. Nothing was adjusted and Version 2.0 with the RICHEDIT control was under development anyway. In version 2.0 Crinker was adjusted slightly to work better with A/V and some memory refinements were configured. Mostly though, the result was the result.
Version 3.0 was written with Crinker in mind every step of the way. Many groups of instructions were rearranged several times testing how Crinker responded. The massive drops in exe size from 908 bytes to 794 bytes were achieved this way. Crinkler is not required for DTE 3.0 to build, but DTE 3.0 really is meant to use it.
(Old) New! June 2026: DTE 2.0 has in collaboration with Dave Plummer been
expanded into TinyRetroPad, a full-featured Notepad work-alike editor
in 2.62 kb! You can find TRPad here
and a video about it here.
You can find the
Save and X Bang buttons in the window's system menu.
Compiles with: MASM and Crinkler.
DTE 1.0 and 2.0 are extensions of tiny.asm HelloAssembly by Dave Plummer.
DTE 3.0 is a complete rewrite. All versions use Crinkler compression
at build time.
DTE is basically a wrapper around the RICHEDIT20W control from the WinAPI.
Version 3.0 is the main distribution. 2.0 is a more standard,
optimized tiny exe. 1.0 is limited by EDIT, and more experimental.
Version 1.0 uses the EDIT control with Crinkler cranked and were built-up
from tiny.asm then worked down to 890 bytes with Win Defender quite unhappy. NOTE:
This has been stabilized at 926 bytes with no A/V issues.
Version 2.0 has Crinkler backed-off a bit and use RICHEDIT to gain cheaper
access to Courier font and much larger files. 2.0 was then worked down from
995 to 967 bytes.
Version 3.0 is a complete rewrite. A map is included showing the varying exe
sizes
| Folder | Description |
|---|---|
1_0 |
Version 1.0 non-mono font 926 bytes build with full history |
2_0_BACKUPS |
Version 2.0 more features, 967 bytes build from RICHEDIT to release |
3_0 |
Version 3.0 complete rewrite, 1024 bytes build from blank to release |
| File | Description |
|---|---|
build.bat |
Builds DTE from command line |
manual.pdf |
How to use DTE |
DTE ABOUT.txt |
Explains some design decisions |
dte.asm |
The program. Version 3.4.9 |
LICENSE |
Usage permissions |
A printable user manual in PDF is included with this distribution.
Drag and drop it onto DTE.
Double-click DTE to run it. A new file "f" will be automatically
created. If f already exists, then DTE simply opens that. Edit
the new file and Save. Quit DTE and rename f to whatever you
want.
Press F9 or click the System Menu->Save.
There is no "Save-As".
DTE now has unsaved-file protection. If the file is unsaved,
the GUI "X" and the System Menu->Close (or Alt-F4) do
nothing. They are only enabled if a file is unchanged since
last save.
X! (X bang) in the system menu overrides the unsaved
protection and allows the user to "throw away changes".
Highlight any text in the file and press F3 to search forwards
or F2 to search backwards. DTE will highlight each next found
instance for every F2 or F3 keypress. End of file and beginning
of file both silently wrap to the other end. If can be very helpful
to place some common search terms at the top of the file
temporarily.
DTE has no Replace dialog, but a quick one-time
replace is available. Copy the replacement text to the
Windows clipboard, highlight the text to find, and use
F2 or F3 to move to the desired instance. Press Ctrl+V
and the highlighted instance is immediately replaced.
To repeat, press Ctrl-Home to jump to the search term
at the top of the file and repeat.
F12
immediately prints to the active (default) printer. If the
active printer is PDF, a dialog will open to choose a file name
to save as. This is a trick. DTE is actually calling Notepad
with the /p flag. The user only briefly sees the Notepad "Now printing"
dialog. The Notepad editor never appears. Note: F12 is disabled unless
the file has been saved.
Important: Programs using Crinkler can be flagged as a false positive by antivirus, including Windows Defender. You may need to make an antivirus exception folder to build this (especially for 1.0), or Windows may delete the EXE as soon as the build completes. Therefore, try this out AT YOUR OWN RISK - NO WARRANTIES / NO GUARANTEES. You can accomplish this with PowerShell, but I am not going to tell you how. Sorry. You're on your own when messing with antivirus.
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MASM version used: Microsoft (R) Macro Assembler Version 14.44.35224.0
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MASM can vary depending on version. If you experience:
C:\masm32\include\winextra.inc(11052) : error A2026:constant expected
C:\masm32\include\winextra.inc(11053) : error A2026:constant expected
In masm32\include\winextra.inc change:
STD_ALERT struct<br>
alrt_timestamp dd ?<br>
alrt_eventname WCHAR [EVLEN + 1] dup(?)
alrt_servicename WCHAR [SNLEN + 1] dup(?)
STD_ALERT ends
to:
STD_ALERT struct<br>
alrt_timestamp dd ?<br>
alrt_eventname WCHAR (EVLEN + 1) dup(?)
alrt_servicename WCHAR (SNLEN + 1) dup(?)
STD_ALERT ends<br>
The brackets on lines 13,14 were changed to parens.
- Build.bat contains: /LIBPATH:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.20348.0\um\x86"
You may need to change to fit your system: /LIBPATH:"....\Windows Kits\10\Lib\(your version)\um\x86" - You need to have Crinkler installed in a directory that has been added to PATH.
Example: C:\utils\Crinkler.exe