Commentary: File Operators, Methods, and Properties

General Operators: The File object is an abstract object. It has two attributes: (1)File Context and (2) File Name. The object is abstract in that it may not relate to anything physical. Until it does relate to something physical, most of the operators have benign effect. When operated on in a complying context a File object comes to life. This section describes the operators, methods, and properties associated with the File object.





#FILE (niladic): Using the niladic form of the #FILE operator yields a totally abstract File object. It will never find a compatible context. However, you can modify its Name and File Context later on and bring it to life.




#FILE (monadic): The monadic form of the #FILE operator takes a file name argument. If the argument is file name only, a null File Context is given to the file. If a full path is given, the File Context is extracted from the path. Rules for doing this are very simple. Begin on the right and scan left until finding "\", "/", or ":". Everything before and including that position becomes File Context. Everything up to that point is considered file name. Being an abstract object, the file doesn't require compliance with a physical store nomenclature until access is attempted. Then it either succeeds and performs the desired operation or it fails and signals an event. This example illustrates several permutations of the instantiation of a file object using the monadic form.




#FILE (dyadic): The dyadic form of the #FILE operator takes a file name left argument and a file context right argument. This form allows you direct the file operations to different physical media while using the same file object. A typical application would have a test environment in one place and the live environment in another. You then easily switch between the two by changing a variable holding the file context which is delivered as an argument.




Stream operations: All stream operations on files are the same as on strings. This is because they work on the file buffer property which is a string.




Hex Look (:hex ):This example illustrates that reading and displaying information in a file object is exactly like doing the same on a string object. This is because you are working with the file's buffer property which is just a Glee string object.




:




General Properties and Methods: File objects have properties and methods. For all intents and purposes they can both be viewed as properties because (right now) the methods do not take arguments ... they just return a result. For example, the .crc method executes against the contents of the file and returns an integer result. For all the user knows, that result is simple static data and thus looks like a property of the file. For now, some properties are assignable (e.g. :name) but no methods are assignable. This may change later on as a need arises. Assigning to a method would essentially be a method call where what is being assigned is an argument to that call. For example, I may later create an :encrypt method. Assigning a key to this method would encrypt the file using that key.




:name: This example illustrates changing the .name property; observing its effect; and reading the property and displaying it. As shown in this example, changing the name makes the associated file object comply with a different stored file. When this is done, the file is closed and all attributes (e.g. read and write pointers) are cleared. The new file is not reopened. In Glee, file opens take place implicity when the file is operated upon.




:fc: This example illustrates change the file context on a file object thereby changing its target physical media.




:props: The file properties can be viewed just like string properties. This property is principally used for troubleshooting and illustration. Note: Files are still in early development so this example may not be exactly what you see until the implementation stabilizes.




:




: