@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ # Exe names
 hex
 
 # Other
+.vscode/
 *.hbx
 src/hex.c
 example.hex

@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@ 
-{
-    "files.associations": {
-        "*.erd": "json",
-        "*.vuerd": "json",
-        "*.mjs": "javascript",
-        "stdio.h": "c",
-        "hex.h": "c"
-    }
-}

@@ -13,5 +13,24 @@ <li>Support for 32bit hexadecimal integers, strings, and quotations (lists).</li>
     <li>A complete <a href="https://hex.2c.fyi">web site</a> with more documentation and even an interactive playground.
     </li>
 </ul>
+<h3>v0.2.0 &mdash; <em>Under development</em></h3>
+
+<h4>New Features</h4>
+<ul>
+    <li>Implemented a virtual machine with a bytecode compiler and interpreter.</li>
+    <li>{{sym-read}}, {{sym-write}}, {{sym-append}} now support reading and writing from/to binary files as well.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<h4>Fixes</h4>
+<ul>
+    <li>Ensured that {{sym-dec}} is able to print negative integers in decimal format.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<h4>Chores</h4>
+<ul>
+    <li>Split the source code to different files, and now relying on an <a
+            href="https://github.com/h3rald/hex/blob/master/scripts/amalgamate.sh">amalgamate.sh</a> script to
+        concatenate them together before compiling</li>
+</ul>
 
 </article>

@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ 
+<h3>v0.2.0 &mdash; <em>Under development</em></h3>
+
+<h4>New Features</h4>
+<ul>
+    <li>Implemented a virtual machine with a bytecode compiler and interpreter.</li>
+    <li>{{sym-read}}, {{sym-write}}, {{sym-append}} now support reading and writing from/to binary files as well.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<h4>Fixes</h4>
+<ul>
+    <li>Ensured that {{sym-dec}} is able to print negative integers in decimal format.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<h4>Chores</h4>
+<ul>
+    <li>Split the source code to different files, and now relying on an <a
+            href="https://github.com/h3rald/hex/blob/master/scripts/amalgamate.sh">amalgamate.sh</a> script to
+        concatenate them together before compiling</li>
+</ul>

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ d-templates "/page.html" cat "t-page" :
 
 ; Symbols to substitute with the corresponding links 
 ("split" "run" "get" "puts" ":" "." "#" "==" "'" "swap" 
-"+" "*" "-" "each" "cat" "print" "read" "dec") "symbol-links" :
+"+" "*" "-" "each" "cat" "print" "read" "dec" "write" "append") "symbol-links" :
 
 ;; Syntax highlighting
 

@@ -113,9 +113,9 @@ hex_doc(docs, "print", "a", "", "Prints 'a' to standard output.");
     hex_doc(docs, "gets", "", "s", "Gets a string from standard input.");
 
     // File
-    hex_doc(docs, "read", "s1", "s2", "Returns the contents of the specified file.");
-    hex_doc(docs, "write", "s1 s2", "", "Writes 's2' to the file 's1'.");
-    hex_doc(docs, "append", "s1 s2", "", "Appends 's2' to the file 's1'.");
+    hex_doc(docs, "read", "s1", "(s2|q)", "Returns the contents of the specified file.");
+    hex_doc(docs, "write", "(s1|q) s2", "", "Writes 's1' or 'q' to the file 's2'.");
+    hex_doc(docs, "append", "(s1|q) s2", "", "Appends 's1' or 'q' to the file 's2'.");
 
     // Shell
     hex_doc(docs, "args", "", "q", "Returns the program arguments.");

@@ -294,6 +294,8 @@ char *hex_type(hex_item_type_t type);
 void hex_rpad(const char *str, int total_length);
 void hex_lpad(const char *str, int total_length);
 void hex_encode_length(uint8_t **bytecode, size_t *size, size_t length);
+int hex_is_binary(const uint8_t *data, size_t size);
+char *hex_bytes_to_string(const uint8_t *bytes, size_t size);
 
 // Native symbols
 int hex_symbol_store(hex_context_t *ctx);

@@ -1467,7 +1467,6 @@ // File symbols
 
 int hex_symbol_read(hex_context_t *ctx)
 {
-
     HEX_POP(ctx, filename);
     if (filename.type == HEX_TYPE_INVALID)
     {
@@ -1477,7 +1476,7 @@ }
     int result = 0;
     if (filename.type == HEX_TYPE_STRING)
     {
-        FILE *file = fopen(filename.data.str_value, "r");
+        FILE *file = fopen(filename.data.str_value, "rb");
         if (!file)
         {
             hex_error(ctx, "Could not open file for reading: %s", filename.data.str_value);
@@ -1489,7 +1488,7 @@ fseek(file, 0, SEEK_END);
             long length = ftell(file);
             fseek(file, 0, SEEK_SET);
 
-            char *buffer = (char *)malloc(length + 1);
+            uint8_t *buffer = (uint8_t *)malloc(length);
             if (!buffer)
             {
                 hex_error(ctx, "Memory allocation failed");
@@ -1498,8 +1497,39 @@ }
             else
             {
                 size_t bytesRead = fread(buffer, 1, length, file);
-                buffer[bytesRead] = '\0';
-                result = hex_push_string(ctx, buffer);
+                if (hex_is_binary(buffer, bytesRead))
+                {
+                    hex_item_t **quotation = (hex_item_t **)malloc(bytesRead * sizeof(hex_item_t *));
+                    if (!quotation)
+                    {
+                        hex_error(ctx, "Memory allocation failed");
+                        result = 1;
+                    }
+                    else
+                    {
+                        for (size_t i = 0; i < bytesRead; i++)
+                        {
+                            quotation[i] = (hex_item_t *)malloc(sizeof(hex_item_t));
+                            quotation[i]->type = HEX_TYPE_INTEGER;
+                            quotation[i]->data.int_value = buffer[i];
+                        }
+                        result = hex_push_quotation(ctx, quotation, bytesRead);
+                    }
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    char *str = hex_bytes_to_string(buffer, bytesRead);
+                    if (!str)
+                    {
+                        hex_error(ctx, "Memory allocation failed");
+                        result = 1;
+                    }
+                    else
+                    {
+                        result = hex_push_string(ctx, str);
+                        free(str);
+                    }
+                }
                 free(buffer);
             }
             fclose(file);
@@ -1551,9 +1581,34 @@ hex_error(ctx, "Could not open file for writing: %s", filename.data.str_value);
                 result = 1;
             }
         }
+        else if (data.type == HEX_TYPE_QUOTATION)
+        {
+            FILE *file = fopen(filename.data.str_value, "wb");
+            if (file)
+            {
+                for (size_t i = 0; i < data.quotation_size; i++)
+                {
+                    if (data.data.quotation_value[i]->type != HEX_TYPE_INTEGER)
+                    {
+                        hex_error(ctx, "Quotation must contain only integers");
+                        result = 1;
+                        break;
+                    }
+                    uint8_t byte = (uint8_t)data.data.quotation_value[i]->data.int_value;
+                    fwrite(&byte, 1, 1, file);
+                }
+                fclose(file);
+                result = 0;
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                hex_error(ctx, "Could not open file for writing: %s", filename.data.str_value);
+                result = 1;
+            }
+        }
         else
         {
-            hex_error(ctx, "Symbol 'write' requires a string");
+            hex_error(ctx, "Symbol 'write' requires a string or a quotation of integers");
             result = 1;
         }
     }
@@ -1604,9 +1659,34 @@ hex_error(ctx, "Could not open file for appending: %s", filename.data.str_value);
                 result = 1;
             }
         }
+        else if (data.type == HEX_TYPE_QUOTATION)
+        {
+            FILE *file = fopen(filename.data.str_value, "ab");
+            if (file)
+            {
+                for (size_t i = 0; i < data.quotation_size; i++)
+                {
+                    if (data.data.quotation_value[i]->type != HEX_TYPE_INTEGER)
+                    {
+                        hex_error(ctx, "Quotation must contain only integers");
+                        result = 1;
+                        break;
+                    }
+                    uint8_t byte = (uint8_t)data.data.quotation_value[i]->data.int_value;
+                    fwrite(&byte, 1, 1, file);
+                }
+                fclose(file);
+                result = 0;
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                hex_error(ctx, "Could not open file for appending: %s", filename.data.str_value);
+                result = 1;
+            }
+        }
         else
         {
-            hex_error(ctx, "Symbol 'append' requires a string");
+            hex_error(ctx, "Symbol 'append' requires a string or a quotation of integers");
             result = 1;
         }
     }

@@ -230,3 +230,92 @@ }
     (*bytecode)[*size] = length & 0x7F;
     (*size)++;
 }
+
+int hex_is_binary(const uint8_t *data, size_t size)
+{
+    const double binary_threshold = 0.1; // 10% of bytes being non-printable
+    size_t non_printable_count = 0;
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < size; i++)
+    {
+        uint8_t byte = data[i];
+        // Check if the byte is a printable ASCII character or a common control character.
+        if (!((byte >= 32 && byte <= 126) || byte == 9 || byte == 10 || byte == 13))
+        {
+            non_printable_count++;
+        }
+        // Early exit if the threshold is exceeded.
+        if ((double)non_printable_count / size > binary_threshold)
+        {
+            return 1;
+        }
+    }
+    return 0;
+}
+
+char *hex_bytes_to_string(const uint8_t *bytes, size_t size)
+{
+    char *str = (char *)malloc(size * 4 + 1); // Allocate enough space for worst case
+    if (!str)
+    {
+        return NULL; // Allocation failed
+    }
+
+    char *ptr = str;
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < size; i++)
+    {
+        uint8_t byte = bytes[i];
+        switch (byte)
+        {
+        case '\n':
+            *ptr++ = '\\';
+            *ptr++ = 'n';
+            break;
+        case '\t':
+            *ptr++ = '\\';
+            *ptr++ = 't';
+            break;
+        case '\r':
+            if (i + 1 < size && bytes[i + 1] == '\n')
+            {
+                i++; // Skip the '\n' part of the '\r\n' sequence
+            }
+            *ptr++ = '\\';
+            *ptr++ = 'n';
+            break;
+        case '\b':
+            *ptr++ = '\\';
+            *ptr++ = 'b';
+            break;
+        case '\f':
+            *ptr++ = '\\';
+            *ptr++ = 'f';
+            break;
+        case '\v':
+            *ptr++ = '\\';
+            *ptr++ = 'v';
+            break;
+        case '\\':
+            *ptr++ = '\\';
+            *ptr++ = '\\';
+            break;
+        case '\"':
+            *ptr++ = '\\';
+            *ptr++ = '\"';
+            break;
+        default:
+            if (byte < 32 || byte > 126)
+            {
+                // Escape non-printable characters as hex (e.g., \x1F)
+                ptr += sprintf(ptr, "\\x%02x", byte);
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                *ptr++ = byte;
+            }
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+    *ptr = '\0'; // Null-terminate the string
+
+    return str;
+}

@@ -83,15 +83,19 @@ 
 a {
     color: lime;
     text-decoration: underline;
+    text-decoration-thickness: from-font;
 }
 
 a:visited {
     color: limegreen;
 }
 
-a[href^=http] {
+a[href^="http"] {
     text-decoration-style: dotted;
-    text-decoration-thickness: from-font;
+}
+
+a[href^="https://hex.2c.fyi"] {
+    text-decoration: underline;
 }
 
 strong {

@@ -565,14 +565,18 @@ <p><mark> &rarr; s</mark></p>
     <p>Reads a line from standard input and pushes it on the stack as a string.</p>
     <h4 id="file-symbols">File Symbols<a href="#top"></a></h4>
     <h5 id="read-symbol"><code>$:read$$</code> Symbol<a href="#top"></a></h5>
-    <p><mark>s1 &rarr; s2</mark></p>
-    <p>Reads the content of the file <code>s1</code> and pushes it on the stack as a string.</p>
+    <p><mark>s1 &rarr; (s2|q)</mark></p>
+    <p>Reads the content of the file <code>s1</code> and pushes it on the stack as a string, if the file is in textual
+        format, or as a quotation of integers representing bytes, if the file is in binary format.</p>
     <h5 id="write-symbol"><code>$:write$$</code> Symbol<a href="#top"></a></h5>
-    <p><mark>s1 s2 &rarr;</mark></p>
-    <p>Writes the string <code>s1</code> to the file <code>s2</code>.
+    <p><mark>(s1|q) s2 &rarr;</mark></p>
+    <p>Writes the string <code>s1</code> or the array of integers representing bytes <code>q</code> to the file
+        <code>s2</code>.
     <h5 id="append-symbol"><code>$:append$$</code> Symbol<a href="#top"></a></h5>
-    <p><mark> s1 s2 &rarr;</mark></p>
-    <p>Appends the string <code>s1</code> to the file <code>s2</code>.</p>
+    <p><mark>(s1|q) s2 &rarr;</mark></p>
+    <p>Appends the string <code>s1</code> or the array of integers representing bytes <code>q</code> to the file
+        <code>s2</code>.
+    </p>
     <h4 id="shell-symbols">Shell Symbols<a href="#top"></a></h4>
     <h5 id="args-symbol"><code>$:args$$</code> Symbol<a href="#top"></a></h5>
     <p><mark> &rarr; q</mark></p>