Bless vs Hecate

Bless is a free binary editor for editing files as sequences of bytes. It supports multilevel undo and redo, customizable data views, multiple tabs, and fast find and replace. The project highlights efficient handling of large data files and raw disk editing, with search and save operations running in multiple threads. Bless exports to text and HTML, while plugins can add other export formats and extend the editor. It is written in C# with Gtk# bindings for GTK+ and distributed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. GNU/Linux is the main target; listed supported platforms are Linux and Windows, and the README says it should also run on *BSD, Solaris, and Win32. Building the current version requires GTK+, a Mono/.NET runtime and C# compiler, Gtk# bindings, pkg-config, and Meson. The GitHub releases page has no releases, and the README provides source-build instructions. NEWS lists version 0.6.3 dated 2020-10-11. Saving a changed-size file under the same name requires temporary space for both files; same-size files save in place.

Hecate is a free terminal hex editor for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It displays interpretations of byte values beneath their hexadecimal representations, including text, bit patterns, integers, and floating-point values. Users can move the cursor with Vim-like controls, edit data in place, and write changes to disk. The README also lists tabbed browsing, large-file support, full-file searches, and expressions for specifying file offsets. Interpretation options include toggling endianness and signedness, decoding dates, and configuring the date epoch. The project describes byte interpretation as useful for reverse-engineering work. Downloads are linked for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, and the README provides a Go command for compiling the editor from source. Hecate is licensed under MIT. The releases page lists version 0.0.1 as the latest release; the license states that the software is provided without warranty. The repository includes usage instructions and a help screen command, but does not state a support service.