From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 103376,f6f130eea077b8f8
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-05-23 14:44:55 PST
Path: 
 archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.ems.psu.edu!news.litech.org!news-feed.riddles.org.uk!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail
From: "Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: AI-248 and counting the elements in an external file
Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 16:45:59 -0500
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com
Message-ID: <vct5imh4199m7f@corp.supernews.com>
References: <MPG.1934e1948ad1faf989709@News.CIS.DFN.DE>
 <ZXzya.660213$OV.619773@rwcrnsc54>
 <prarcv0cidajjkv1t1favsv4ch0qglht1s@4ax.com>
 <x7vof1t780x.fsf@smaug.pushface.org> <qN$+hNiTRFwu@eisner.encompasserve.org>
 <u4r3l5pvw.fsf@nasa.gov>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3612.1700
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3719.2500
X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com
Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:37721
Date: 2003-05-23T16:45:59-05:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Stephen Leake wrote in message ...
>Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen) writes:
>
>> I suppose my lack of experience with Ada95 streams ('read, etc.)
>> may be the reason for my confusion, but in reading
>>
>> http://www.ada-auth.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/AIs/AI-00248.TXT?rev=1.16
>>
>> I see in several places the text:
>>
>> The size of an external file is the number of
>> stream elements contained in the file.
>
>a "stream element" is just a "byte"; it's Ada-ese for "smallest
>writeable chunk". On all "normal" OS's, it's 8 bits.
>
>I think perhaps you are thinking of "stream element" as some
>higher-level object?
>
>> That is straightforward for a file of some record type, or a file of
>> integers, but what if the file is one created with Ada95 stream
>> semantics ?
>
>It makes no difference. All of these types must be converted to raw
>stream elements (bytes) before they can be written to the file. That's
>the nature of files!


Right, the intent is that this value is whatever the OS returns for the
file size. That's true for all of the results of this package (with a
few exceptions). There is no attempt to tie the file size to any other
Ada semantics (that would be a mess).

            Randy.