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TinyRetroPad

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First post, by DosFreak

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https://github.com/PlummersSoftwareLLC/TinyRetroPad
https://github.com/PlummersSoftwareLLC/TinyRe … roPad/issues/21

Assumption is that it is only compatible with the later versions of Windows but I haven't tested.

A working, Notepad-style Windows text editor in roughly 2.5 KB. […]
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A working, Notepad-style Windows text editor in roughly 2.5 KB.

Compiles with: MASM and Crinkler.

TinyRetroPad is a fork of Dave's Tiny Editor (DTE) by Matt Power, which is itself an extension of tiny.asm HelloAssembly by Dave Plummer. The original goal was a working windowed text editor in the sub-1KB category; TinyRetroPad keeps that minimalist, size-obsessed spirit while filling out a full Notepad-style menu set (File / Edit / Format / View / Help) on top of it. It uses Crinkler compression at build time.

TinyRetroPad is basically a wrapper around the RICHEDIT50W control from the WinAPI. DTE versions 1.0+ used the EDIT control with Crinkler cranked and were built up from tiny.asm, then worked down to 890 bytes with Win Defender quite unhappy. Versions 2.0+ backed Crinkler off a bit and use RICHEDIT to gain cheaper access to Courier font and much larger files; 2.0+ was worked down from 995 to 981 bytes as a bare editor. TinyRetroPad then grows from that 981-byte base by adding real menus and dialogs — Open/Save/Save As, Print/Page Setup, Find/Replace/Go To, Font, Word Wrap, Time/Date, and a Ln/Col status bar — landing near 2,476 bytes. Each addition was kept as cheap as possible; the growth log at the top of trpad.asm records what every feature cost in bytes.

If you don't want to bother with downloading the above but need something simple...
I noticed the other day that "edit" was added back to the Windows command prompt which has been missing for a very long time.

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Reply 1 of 3, by zyzzle

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Huh. Where's the DOS version?!

Reply 2 of 3, by Start me up

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In which Windows version does this program work? It has a few strange values in the PE32 headers which makes me wonder whether there is any Windows version that accepts the file from the releases section of the github-page.

Simply trying to start it in Windows 2000 shows an error message. Trying to start it with a debugger attached even leads to a blue screen.

Reply 3 of 3, by DosFreak

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According to the issue tracker "Crinkler 3.0" which this program uses is incompatible with Windows XP so 2000 as well but supposedly recompiling and using "Crinkler 2.3" may make it compatible.

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