[fpc-pascal] Adding file to string to the RTL

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Mon, 5 Oct 2020, Ryan Joseph via fpc-pascal wrote:

>
>
>> On Oct 5, 2020, at 3:23 PM, Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-pascal <fpc-pascal at lists.freepascal.org> wrote:
>> 
>> So I think you're looking at 6 or even 8 versions of this hypothetical function...
>
> Ouch. :)
>
> I'm sure this code already exists in the RTL though, right?  I assume it's
> part of some classes like TStringList and we can just pull it up into a
> collection of functions which are easily searchable in the RTL docs.

Using TStringList would be a mistake, since it will parse your file while
there is no need.

No, I think that if you want this, it must be built from the basic calls.

>
> If not what is lowest level cross-platform layer which already exists and
> can we build up from?  Maybe the "TextFile" type helps us?  (I know it's
> ancient and I've never used it before honestly).

I don't think that would be a good strategy.

A simple filecreate, allocate buffer, fileread, fileclose will probably be easiest.

Michael.