Re: Data Overlays

[gvls1!lonjers@louie.udel.edu (Jim Lonjers)]

In article <70605@mimsy.umd.edu> alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore) writes:

>the one case where I found it necessary was trying to read into a large
>string buffer using Posix IO (which defines its own string type)
>the only portable solution was to read into a posix string, and then
>use the posix conversion function to convert between the two (really identical
)
>string types.

POSIX Ada also allows one to read and write arbitrary types (with
Generic_Read and _Write).  The non-generic write is provided for those
situations where one wishes to pretend they are writing in C (just a
joke, guys).

This is efficient, does not incur any addition data copies, and, while not
guaranteed to be portable, it probably does port.  The files generated this
way are not portable between compilers.

Jim