Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 17:39:13 -0800 (PST)
Message-Id: <199802050139.RAA05636@adit.ap.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
To: Ryan Bright <rmb56313 AT csun DOT edu>, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
From: Nate Eldredge <eldredge AT ap DOT net>
Subject: Re: Allegro: pack_fread()
Precedence: bulk

At 07:18  2/3/1998 -0800, Ryan Bright wrote:
>George Foot wrote:
>> 
>> On Thu, 29 Jan 1998 20:49:21 -0800 in comp.os.msdos.djgpp Ryan Bright
>> <rmb56313 AT csun DOT edu> wrote:
>> 
>> : AFAIK, however, if you're not going take advantage of the compression,
>> : password, or datafile access capabilities of packfiles, there's really
>> : no reason to use them at all.  It would only decrease the portability of
>> : your code.
>> 
>> True, but there are benefits, particularly if you're using Allegro for
>> everything anyway.  Shawn wrote all of the code for Allegro using
>> packfile functions, even the code to load BMP, PCX, MID, WAV, VOC, etc
>Hmm.. why? 
Because he might need to read them from packed files.
> Didn't he just suggest that the stdio routines be used
>instead for basic i/o?
Yes, when you know you are dealing with regular files. Shawn (I assume)
wanted to allow the use of packed files for any Allegro use. The `pack_*'
functions reduce to their stdio equivalents when the file in question is not
packed.

Nate Eldredge
eldredge AT ap DOT net