try this.. gcc helloworld.c mc move over the a.out f3 (View) f4 (switch to hex) f2 (edit) nothing happens. Because f2 is an empty menu option. (It doesn't even have an "edit" label). Doing the same procedure on another file allows hex editing.
Not a bug. Your F-Key-sequence ought to be: F3 (View) F8 (Raw) <-- (!) F4 (Hex) F2 (Edit)
Indeed. mc allows switching between Parse/Raw mode to allow editing.
weird. f3-f4-f2 works fine for other files, just not executables.
Enter MC menu "Command > Edit extension file", then look for type/^ELF You can disable the default View= action there if it annoys you. There are similar actions defined for many other file types.