On Thu, Nov 29, 2001 at 06:20:37PM -0500, Michael G Schwern wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 29, 2001 at 03:40:40PM -0600, Greg Bacon wrote:
> > Sorry, I wasn't clear on an important point. You only get one pass
> > through the file.
>
> Does the "read from the front and back" trick qualify as one or two
> passes?
I think there is terminology confusion here -
a file (in Unix) is random-access array of bytes, which
can be opened multiple times, seeked into any position (relative to beginning,
current, or end), read and written.
the entity which can be accessed only sequentally, without rewind or multiple
opens,
is called pipe (or `stream' in C++ speak.)
