Path: utzoo!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uunet!taumet!steve
From: steve@taumet.COM (Stephen Clamage)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Read Files, How?
Message-ID: <233@taumet.COM>
Date: 31 May 90 16:47:17 GMT
Article-I.D.: taumet.233
References: <50800002@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: steve@taumet.UUCP (Stephen Clamage)
Organization: Taumetric Corporation, San Diego
Lines: 27

In article <50800002@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> jlg0805@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>On standard Pascal, how can one interactively input a file name, then
>ask the program to read the file; ask the program to load another 
>file and repeat the same thing.
>how to solve this problem? i hope it is not that one recompiles the 
>program for each new file.

This is something which varies among different Pascal implementations.
You have to read the manual for each different compiler to find out
how best to do it.  I know of no compilers where mentioning the file
name in the program header is either necessary or sufficient.

>--The profs never teach useful practical things but stuff like AVL trees
>  in class. :-(

Pardon me, but I don't think you should be going to college to find out
how to open a file in, say, Turbo Pascal.  You can get that information
in 5 minutes or less by glancing at the manual.

If you get a thorough grounding in theory, you can write any kind of
program on any kind of system.  While you may never need to implement
an AVL tree, you still learn a lot about how to think about programming
while studying them.
-- 

Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve@taumet.com