Right (no pun intended). The problem, of course, is that a # read in MUMPS doesn't necessarily behave like an fread. If it did, life would be much simpler. Or would it? There is still the problem ot text I/O, and unlike most other languages, MUMPS provides no standard mechanism of for linking to runtime libraries. That means that programmers tend to use the basic I/O facilities provided at the language level, and not library functions like scanf (or fread) in C. Fileman and Kernel attempt to address this problem by providing routines like ^DIR (the Fileman reader) and tools like the Kernel device handler, but the solution is not really ideal. My point of view is that programmers should not have to do extra work or rely on libraries or applications over and above the basic language environment to perform basic I/O tasks. In addition, languages need to provide support for binary files, pipes and FIFOs, TCP channels and the like. MUMPS is very (7-bit) text-centric, essentially by design.
--- Ruben Safir <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In the latter case, > > there is the problem that M programmers have a propensity for using > > > sentinel values like "^" to delimit data items, but the first > problem > > is much more serious. > > > > > The only sure fire way to get data moved somewhere is with something > like fread or fwrite. You must know how much data your moving > because > any character (or even combination of chars) can be part of a > string/binary > > Ruben > > > === > > Gregory Woodhouse > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > "The most incomprehensible thing about > > the world is that it is at all comprehensible." > > --Albert Einstein (1879-1955) > > > > > > On Aug 21, 2005, at 1:26 PM, Ruben Safir wrote: > > > > > On Sun, 2005-08-21 at 12:57 -0700, Chris Richardson wrote: > > > > > >> Ah, but how big is a character? MUMPS deals in characters > > >> reguardless of > > >> the number of octets required to represent it. > > >> > > >> 1Octet = 8 bits > > >> > > >> Ascii - 1 octet/character > > >> Unicode, Kanji,Katakana,etc - 2 octets/character > > >> ISO-10646 - 4octets/character > > >> > > > > > > In terms of storing and retrieving data, it shouldn't matter. > We've > > > been dealing with 7 bit encoded attachments for a decade in > email. > > > > > > Ruben > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO > > September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle > Practices > > Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * > Testing & QA > > Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * > http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf > > _______________________________________________ > > Hardhats-members mailing list > > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO > September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle > Practices > Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing > & QA > Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * > http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf > _______________________________________________ > Hardhats-members mailing list > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members > === Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "Design quality doesn't ensure success, but design failure can ensure failure." --Kent Beck ------------------------------------------------------- SF.Net email is Sponsored by the Better Software Conference & EXPO September 19-22, 2005 * San Francisco, CA * Development Lifecycle Practices Agile & Plan-Driven Development * Managing Projects & Teams * Testing & QA Security * Process Improvement & Measurement * http://www.sqe.com/bsce5sf _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
