Re: Text_IO on WinNT problem

[David Starner <dvdeug@x8b4e53cd.dhcp.okstate.edu>]

On Tue, 25 Sep 2001 18:04:13 +0200, Alfred Hilscher wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> can I read (ASCII-) files that are stored as UNICODE with Text_IO ?
> 
> I have a file that contains only ASCII text but is coded in UNICODE
> (e.g. "ABC" is stored as hex 41 00 42 00 43 00 instead of 41 42 43). Is
> there a way to handle such files via Text_IO ? I work with GNAT on WinNT
> 4.0.

Looking at the GNAT Reference manual, under Wide_Text_IO, there's no way
to load it in as Wide_Character. There's no standard way to handle it
with Text_IO - this seems like a fairly unusual case - but you could
always try reading them in one by one and discarding half of them.

BTW, Unicode refers to a enumerated set of characters and the associated
standard. There are various encoding forms; the one you refer to is
UTF-16 - UTF-16LE, to be specific, as whether UTF-16 is big-endian or
little-endian is ambigious. To that end, UTF-16 often starts with FEFF
so you can tell whether it's big endian (FE FF) or little endian (FF
FE). You probably want to make sure you don't accidently read that in as
ASCII, and that's the right way around.

-- 
David Starner - dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org
Pointless website: http://dvdeug.dhis.org
When the aliens come, when the deathrays hum, when the bombers bomb,
we'll still be freakin' friends. - "Freakin' Friends"