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From: "Jeffrey R.Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.acm.org.not>
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Subject: Re: Using "pure" (?) Ada, how to determine whether a file is a "text"
 file, not a binary?
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2023 22:39:27 +0200
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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.

>    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.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Ada is the only language where users are
happy to have compilation errors!"
Jean-Pierre Rosen
166