Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19970825173441.006ab780@dce03.ipt.br>
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Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 14:34:41 -0300
To: fighteer AT cs DOT com, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
From: Cesar Scarpini Rabak <csrabak AT dce03 DOT ipt DOT br>
Subject: Re: Writing a struct to disk
Precedence: bulk

At 21:32 19/08/97 +0000, John M. Aldrich wrote:

>
>Text format has the advantage of being highly portable.  You can pass a
>text formatted data file from system to system with the assurance that
>it will be read in the same way by your programs.  It's slower than
>binary format though, less secure, and requires more work to maintain
>its integrity.
>

I've seen this affirmation several times when threads of this sort appear in
this ng. I would like to point two things:

Text format is not _that_ highly portable! When one switches from
environment the way the end of line is marked varies, and filters or
converting programms may be needed...

And since C language does not require a standard character set (as e.g. Ada
which requires ASCII), one may even to use translators for the character set
as well!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cesar Scarpini Rabak                      E-mail: csrabak AT ipt DOT br
DME/ASC                                   Phone: 55-11-268-3522 Ext.350
IPT - Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnologicas Fax:   55-11-268-5996
Av. Prof. Almeida Prado, 532.  Sao Paulo - SP 05508-901 BRAZIL
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