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Postings from March 2012
On Mar 2, 2012, at 1:51 AM, Johan Vromans wrote:
> Nicholas Clark <nick@ccl4.org> writes:
>
>> So I'd like to know, if a programmer on VMS sets $/ to read records, but on
>> a file handle marked with :utf8, what do they want?
>>
>> (and if the answer is "their head examining", that's actually useful, as it
>> means that the least insane thing to implement is what we get)
>
> In VMS, and its predecessor RSX, the purpose of a file with fixed width
> records has always been that you can easily and efficiently retrieve a
> specific record at all times. These files were often referred to as
> 'random access files'. Random access files typically didn't have record
> terminators.
>
> In flat files systems, you can find record NNN by seeking to position
> NNN*width, and seeking loses its efficiency when done on characters.
Not really relevant to the discussion of $/ and UTF-8, but to be pedantically correct, relative access to files with fixed-length records is only one of several random access methods available on VMS. The others don't require the records to be fixed length.
________________________________________
Craig A. Berry
mailto:craigberry@mac.com
"... getting out of a sonnet is much more
difficult than getting in."
Brad Leithauser
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