Introduction

• Have you ever searched for the ASCII code of some special character or vice versa?
• Are you tired of using a calculator to convert numbers between decimal, hexadecimal and binary bases?
• Do you want to pick a specific color on screen?
• Do you work a lot with IP addresses and net masks?
• Do you want to improve your "feel" for how numbers are handled inside the computer?

Getting it

Installing and uninstalling

FeelTheBase comes in two flavors, you will only need one of them and can remove the other one:

• FeelTheBase.exe - A 236kB large binary that should run on most Windows95/NT systems.
• FeelTheBase-dynamic.exe - A 26kB small binary that requires the MFC4.2 DLL files (Microsoft Foundation Classes) installed in Windows\System.

The user interface

The fields

• Decimal field: Here numbers are entered in decimal notation (base 10). By checking the Signed checkbox, negative numbers will be displayed in negative form. Otherwise negative numbers will show up as the large numbers they are actually stored as (In 2th complement form).
• Hexadecimal field: This field expects numbers to be entered in hexadecimal form (base 16). It will always display negative numbers in 2th complement form.
• Binary field: This field expects numbers to be entered in binary form (base 2). The bits are displayed in groups of eight to simplify reading. It will always display negative numbers in 2th complement form.
• Text field: This field handles numbers in their text (or ISO Latin-1) representation. For example, the number 65 will be displayed as an "A" as 65 is the ASCII code for the character "A". One, two or four characters are accepted depending on the mode buttons.
• IP address field: This field handles numbers in the format used by Internet Protocol adresses. It is only active in long word mode, as IP addresses are always 32 bit in size. (See Mode buttons below). An IP address must consist of four numbers in the range 0-255 separated by three dots. To simplify the entering of IP addresses using the numeric keypad, the comma key produces dots instead of commas.
• Spin buttons: These buttons increment and decrement the current value by an amount set in the Settings window. Users with a wheel mouse may also use the wheel to increment and decrement the current value.
• Color picker: This button shows the color that corresponds to the current value. It is only active in long word mode. Values are mapped to colors in standard html format (RRGGBB) so copying the hex value onto an html editor is a simple way of getting that right web page color. The button is also a color picker. Click and drag the mouse onto any pixel on the screen to get that color. Double click on the button to open the system color selector.

The mode buttons

• Long, Word and Char buttons: These radiobuttons switches the size of number presentation in FeelTheBase. In Long mode (4 bytes wide), numbers are displayed in the range 0 to 4294967295 or -2147483648 to +2147483647 depending on the setting of the Signed checkbox. In Word mode (2 bytes wide) the range is 0 to 65535 or -32768 to +32767 respectively. In Char (1 byte) the range is 0 to 255 or -128 to +127 respectively.
  Numbers that are too large to fit in a particular size get their high order bytes visually truncated in order to fit. However the digits are not truncated internally, so increasing the size again will restore all bytes of a number.
• Signed checkbox: When checked, negative numbers are displayed in negative form in the Dec field. Otherwise negative numbers show up as the large numbers they are actually stored as (In 2th complement form).
• Clear checkbox: When checked, the fields are automatically cleared before data can be entered in order to speed up repeated entry of numbers.

The settings window

• Spin button increment: This field sets the value to be added to or removed from the current value when the spinbutton is being clicked. (The spinbutton is the one with the two arrows). NT users with a wheel mouse may also use the wheel to increment and decrement the current value.
• Enable ToolTips: Enables Tool Tips on the fields and buttons of the main window. (Tool Tips are small informative text labels that appear next to a control if the user rests the mouse over a control).
• Stay on top: Makes sure that the FeelTheBase window is always on top of other windows. Handy for color picking.
• Save settings on exit: Normally FeelTheBase does not save anything when closed, but with this checkbox checked, the current configuration will be written to the system registry. When FeelTheBase is restarted, this information will be read back again. (FeelTheBase stores configuration information under the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Datadosen\FeelTheBase)

Changes

Legal

Credits

The author