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From: bakul@netcom.com (Bakul Shah)
Subject: Re: File Seeking in Scheme
Message-ID: <bakulD0tItn.80M@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <pbewigD0tG80.CKK@netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 1994 20:41:47 GMT
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pbewig@netcom.com (Phil Bewig) writes:

>                   Of course, the effect of a seek is possible
>by closing a file, reopening it, and reading past unwanted
>characters, but that's unthinkable (except I just thought it).

This will not work for output files.  Also, you may not know the
name of the file (you just have a port to it).  Under Unix the
file may even dissappear if you close it so no guarantee you can
reopen it.

There are no standard procedures in Scheme to seek in a file, do
directory operations, control devices, exec commands, open
windows, search for regular expression matches or ....  This is
why it would be nice to have a standard library to access system
facilities or a foreign function interface.

You are limited to whatever facilities are provided by the
implementation you use.

Bakul Shah
