Re: Using "pure" (?) Ada, how to determine whether a file is a "text" file, not a binary?

[Kenneth Wolcott <kennethwolcott@gmail.com>]

On Saturday, July 1, 2023 at 1:39:30 PM UTC-7, Jeffrey R.Carter wrote:
> On 2023-07-01 19:15, Kenneth Wolcott wrote: 
> > 
> > Using "pure" (?) Ada, how to determine whether a file is a "text" file, not a binary?
> That depends on the definition of a text file. Under Unix and Windows, all files 
> are sequences of bytes, and so may be considered sequences of Characters, and so 
> text files. 
> 
> If you can define what distinguishes text files from binary files, then it 
> should be fairly easy to write Ada to distinguish them. 
> 
> For example, if a text file is one in which all the characters, except line 
> terminators, are graphic characters, then it should be clear how to determine 
> whether a file meets that definition of a text file.

I think that is the definition that I'm going to pursue as the simplest  and effective definition.

> > As a side question, how does one read "binary" files in Ada?
> Ada has Direct_IO, Sequential_IO, and Stream_IO for reading binary files. Which 
> you would use and how to use it depends on what's in the file and what you need 
> to do with it. 

  Ok, now that seems to be pretty obvious! I'll go and experiment further...

Thank you!
Ken