Read Me

FILOU 0.1-Alpha
---------------


FILOU is a file object analyzer utility. It is designed to help reverse engineer 
data files of unknown formats. This is achieved by providing a set of plugins which
can be extended by the user, and assigned to a file or a part of the file.
The framework of FILOU will then use the specified plugin(s) to display the data
in the window. The plugins can also be designed to edit the data. The default
plugin which is active for an unknown file is a simple hex viewer/editor.

The procedure is thus: You look at a file and recognize a certain set of data.
Let's say a string. In this case you can tell the framework that this part of the
file is now represented by a string plugin and everytime that part of that file
is visible, the framework will now call the string plugin to display the data
instead of the hexdumper. This means that you can make the file more and more 
readable as you learn more of the structure of it. When you are finished you can
save that information and write a program that can read/write that data.

When you are working on your file you can, of course write a plugin which can also
display the data (as much as you know about it) and work on the remainder with the
other plugins until you have a full knowledge of the data structures in the file.

For example:

If you want to read a DLL on Windows(tm) you can write a plugin
that knows how to read the header and all the stuff contained in the DLL file. 
Each part of the file is then displayed in a way that is suitable for that 
particular part. i.E. for a DLL it can provide a list of exports and for the
code it can use a disassembler.

A plugin is located in a DLL and can be attached at runtime (except the 
Hexdumper which is an internal class but uses the same interface as any
other plugin).

If you downloaded the dynamic version you will need the wxWidgets DLL the 
application is linked against. If you don't already have it, you can download
it where you downloaded FILOU. http://sourceforge.net/projects/desktoptools


If you have any questions you can contact me (the author) at sparhawk@gmx.at.