Best way to edit .dex files?

[DHO]

I would like to tweak some setting on classes.dex on the nexus as well as a few other phones, but I'm fairly new to the world of java

Is there a stand alone editor, or do I need to decomplie, edit, recomplile (if so any suggestions on most practical method)? I have not seen a satisfying result on google for android phones.

Thanks for any/all advise.