Software Gadgets

One of the programs I really miss from the days of DOS is Vernon D. Buerg's LIST.It was a small program that could quickly display any file, no matter how large. Text files were easy to search and scan without having to open an editor. Non-text files would display in hex code. It was a great little program. You can still buy, but it is still a DOS program -- with all the limitations of DOS.

I recently discovered ListXP by Rick Brewster. ListXP is a free light-weight, high-performance file viewer for Windows. It works with any file that you have access to and will display the data exactly as it was stored on the disk. Advanced features like boolean expression searches and "tailing" make ListXP the premiere file viewer for Windows. Rick wrote ListXP to be familiar to those used to the old DOS-based version of Vernon Buerg's LIST while introducing more powerful and modern functionality.

Here is a list of ListXP features taken from the ListXP web site:

* It's free. It does not cost you any money to use the program with the full feature set.

* Powerful search capabilities including literal, regular expression (regex), and advanced Boolean searches help you find the text that you're looking for within a file.

* Performance. ListXP employs many proven and new algorithms, data structures, and design patterns that were designed with performance and efficiency in mind.

* Enormous files are handled with no trouble. Theoretically, in Windows NT/2000/XP, files up to 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 bytes in size may be opened (2 to the 63rd power), which is 8 exabytes. Usage in Windows 95/98/Me is limited to proper operation with files less than 4GB (2 to the 32nd power).

* Very low memory usage. The amount of memory consumed for loading files is very, very small. Opening a 56GB text file uses only about 30MB of memory and still allows you to scroll and search through the file naturally (i.e. random access with a scrollbar) and with full responsivity.

* Versatility. Built-in parsers support ASCII text, untranslated binary, Unicode text, and mIRC log file display (i.e. colors, bold, underline).

* Aesthetics. In general, ListXP is more adherent to standard Windows user-interface idioms while retaining the quick and efficient keystroke based interface of the old DOS version. ListXP is also aware of Windows XP visual styles and thus conforms to the user's selected motif. You can also customize the colors that are used for rendering text.

* Tailing. When a file has new data appended to it you can have ListXP automatically refresh the display to include the new data. Since ListXP only parses the new end of the file (instead of the entire file), tail updates are very quick.

* Index Hive. Enabling this lets ListXP cache structural information about files you open so that they can be fully opened instantly the next time you open them -- even if they're enormous!

* Scrollbars and a resizable viewing window that can be set to any size (80x25 minimum). This is especially noteworthy for the hex-view mode. Most file viewers will only show 16-bytes per line regardless of the window size (if they even support resizing!). ListXP will display as many bytes as can fit into the width of the window.

* Explorer shell integration. LIST recommends setting up a "Send To" menu shortcut. With ListXP you can right click any file and simply select "List" (or press "L" on the keyboard). It's very convenient, and it only involves one checkbox in the Preferences menu. And if you don't want it, simply don't enable it!

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Operating System: Windows
License: Freeware (Open Source/MIT License)
Price: Free
Version Reviewed: 1.01
Web Site: http://www.listxp.com/
See Screenshots