SEXeHeader V2.0 MS Windows (Bindoze) New Executable (NE) header reader ©Copyright 1995 Soyeb Aswat FreeWare 22/9/95 Introduction SEXeHeader is the first stage in a project I am working on which will culminate in a program that will allow you to run a MS Windows application on your Amiga as if it were made for AmigaOS originally. This is with all the Amiga's wonderful multitasking abilities and without the Windows resource hogging! The next stage of this project is an 80386 dissasembler which will dissasemble Windows NE executable files and dynamic link libraries (DLL). This will be followed by the actual emulator to run Windows programs. Requirements An Amiga! Workbench 2.04 Usage SEXeHeader Name/A STDIO/S Stdio switch is to allow you to output the information on shell window enabling output redirection to a file. What does it do! SEXeHeader takes a Windows executable or library file as input and displays it's header details in an understandable manner. In other words it looks at the details the linker has put in the file to tell the loader how to load and run it. Some very interesting things can be found in this data. Why do it? Why have a program to look at Windows files on an Amiga I hear you ask. Well as can be seen from the introduction I am working on a Windows emulator, *not* a PC emulator but a Windows emulator. To do this I have to decipher Microsoft ducumentation which is very ambiguous, confusing and has great omissions. The best way to find this out in my opinion was to write my own program to do something and compare the output to a similar program already available. SEXeHeader's output was compared to Turbo Dump from Borland, Mapwin from PharLap Technologies and EXEdump from the writers of Undocumented Windows. The dissasemblers output will be compared to similar dissasemblers I have in my posession on the PC and the final emulator will be compared to Windows itself! From making SEXeHeader I was able to clear up much of the confusion and ommisions I found in the Microsoft ducumentation for the Windows NE file format. Future I will continue to develop this program as much as I need so don't expect new versions. I have included the source for all to ogle at and improve on. Bugs None that I have found but I am sure there are some. Send me a detailed description of the bug describing your system, programs running etc, and preferably a copy of the file that caused the problem to show up. NOTE If you make any improvements or bug fixes please send them to me FIRST do not release any "improved" versions. This is not to oppress your creativity but to allow the currently available version of SEXeHeader to be the best available. This also stops some versions having features that others don't etc. All improvements made by you will be fully credited. Windows emulator If you are interested in any of my future projects please send me some mail to let me know. Depending on the amount of interest shown I will put effort into producing the software. Author Soyeb Aswat 37 Newick Road, Clapton, London, E5 0RP, UK. e-mail: df114@city.ac.uk If you use this program or even just download it out of curiosity (catchy name isn't it!) send me an e-mail or a postcard or something so I know if anybody's out there! If you have any questions comments bug reports or just want somebody to talk to write to me. Liscence This program can be freely distributed on the condition that the archive stays in its original form. No modifications are made to the program, documentation and associated files. The source is provided for reference only and is not intended to reflect the operation of the provided executable. You may change and recompile the source to your specifications but I shall retain the copyright on this and any subsequent versions of the program and will be subject to the conditions above. Any improvements made should be sent to me and if included in following software, improvements will be fully credited to you. Under no circumstances should adjusted copies be distributed without my prior consent. No gurantees are made as to the suitability, functionality or accuracy of the software to any purpose whatsoever. No guarantee is made to the accuracy of the documentation as relating to the software or otherwise. No resposibility is taken for damages caused through the use or misuse of the program of any sort whatsoever whether direct or consequential, whether physical, financial or any other form. References Microsoft Windows 3.1 Programmer's reference Volume 4 Microsoft Press ISBN: 1-55615-494-1 Contains the NE file format among many others. Typical Microsoft documentation, confusing and containing many omissions, only there to keep the lawyers happy and stop themfrom being investigated for monopolising. Despite all this absolutely essential. Microsoft Windows 3.1 Guide to programming Microsoft Press ISBN: As above. Best thing is to get the complete set of programmers reference guides which are available with the Microsoft Windows 3.1 Software Development Kit (SDK) Probably be hard to get hold of now but if you have a copy PLEASE TELL ME!!!!!! Undocumented Windows : a programmer's guide to reserved Microsoft Windows API functions by Andrew Schulman, David Maxey, Matt Pietrek Addison-Wesley ISBN: 0-201-60834-0 Invaluable source of information for insulting Windows, also contains many usful descriptions of both documented and undocumented functions etc. History 1.0 19/9/95 First version, works on any Amiga 2.0 22/9/95 Revised version which opens its own output window unless specfically instructed not to, useful for redirecting output to a file. Proper command line parsing courtesy of ReadArgs function. Ctrl-C support added. Named version 2.0 due to the requirement of Workbench 2.0