[fpc-pascal] documentation for file handling, reset, rewrite, errors?

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009, Ken G. Brown wrote:

> I cannot seem to find the good docs for the file handling routines assign, rewrite and reset in the pdf's that came with fpc-2.2.2. Where might the best ones be?
> I have:
> User's Manual.pdf
> Units Reference Guide.pdf

Normally, the routines are documented here.

> Programmer's Manual.pdf
> Language Reference Guide.pdf
> Free Component Library.pdf
> Compiler Switches.pdf
> Code Documented.pdf
> 
> I would like to find good descriptions of how they work, along with error handling and examples of how 
> to how to best use them.
> 
> eg. can an internal memory based file be set to be written and read at the same time? 

Yes.

> Is the file read position independent of the write position?

This kind of thing is not explained.

> 
> If the internal file has been written to the end and the write operation is finished but 
> the file is still open for writing, what needs to be done in order to start reading the file from the beginning?

With standard file I/O, this is not possible.

> 
> Are streams available for reading and writing and are they preferable to while not eof (inFi) read(inFi) 
> then write(outFi)?

They are.

> 
> Are exceptions useful?

Yes :-)

> 
> Examples?
> 
> My goal is to create an internal file then dump it to a system usb printer.

>From your questions, I think  you're better off using TMemoryStream and class
based programs. They're more flexible than the standard Pascal file I/O.

> 
> I've found an example of writing to a pipe using assignlst (f,'|/usr/bin/lpr -m'); that seems to sorta work,
> from here: <http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=656110>, 2nd message.
> Is that a good way to do output to a printer?

On linux/unix there is no other reliable way.

Michael.