Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!jkc
From: jkc@Apple.COM (John Kevin Calhoun)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Simulating arrays (Of tickboxes)
Message-ID: <52964@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 16 May 91 18:48:33 GMT
References: <674217627.0@blkcat.FidoNet>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 26


In article <674217627.0@blkcat.FidoNet> Ken.Knight@f421.n109.z1.FidoNet.Org
(Ken Knight) writes:
>What extension to the read command have been implemented in HC 2.1?

You can now access files randomly as well as sequentially.

        read from file "Fred" at 100 for 12
        read from file "Fred" until end  -- 'eof' works too
        write myVar to file "Fred" at 200
        write moreStuff to file "Fred" at end  -- 'eof' works too

In addition, the 16K limit on the amount of text that could be read at
once has been removed.  If the amount of text you ask for won't fit in
memory, HyperCard sets the result to "Not enough memory to read from file."

>Is something like this coming: a read to keystring; which is
>FAST (not your average brute-force search for keystring)?

No.  But it might be faster for you to read large chunks of data into a
local variable and then use the various HT functions and operators to
parse your text.  Using "offset", "is in", and "contains" with a larger
HT container is faster than reading the file in small chunks.

Kevin Calhoun
jkc@apple.com