Re: text_io problems

[CHRIS@engvax.UUCP]

[ Go ahead bug, make my day. ]

     I have not been bothered by Ada IO, but then, whenever I want to do
anything fancy I immediately switch to a screen management package like the SMG$
(VMS 4.x) routines or curses (Unix).  I realize that this makes these programs
relatively unportable, but I'd rather deal with non-portability than not be able
to do fancy screen IO easily. 

     I would normally switch to a screen management package when trying to do
any fancy screen IO from any language, but perhaps there should be an attempt to
write a screen management package for Ada.  This means either adapting one of
the current group of screen management routines (there are probably at least as
many as there operating systems) or writing a whole new package specifically for
Ada programs.  Perhaps this could be part of the APSE?  Of course, this then
means that one has to figure out which screen management package one should
adapt or what the specs for the new package should be...  (I have the feeling
that people feel about IO the same way that they feel about editors, languages,
operating systems, etc.)

     I have never attempted any sort of file IO with Ada yet, but if indead
Text_IO will only deal with printable ASCII characters, then that makes Text_IO
more limited than I like.  It also makes Text_IO useless as a building block for
the above mentioned screen management package, since many terminals require
escape sequences for various character graphics.

				-- Chris Yoder

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