Re: variable length strings

["Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>]

"Jeffrey Carter" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:E2egd.10071$KJ6.6647@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> More FWIW: I implemented a binding to the C function fgets, which
> behaves similarly to Ada.Text_IO.Get_Line (stops at end of buffer or end
> of line; in latter case, skips line terminator), and implemented a
> Get_Line function using it. It exhibits the same behavior as a Get_Line
> function using Ada.Text_IO.Get_Line for the case of a last line that is
> not properly terminated and is a multiple of the buffer length.
>
> Win98/GNAT 3.15p.

C is broken so Ada should be too? That makes *no* sense.

For the record, Janus/Ada inserts a (single) implied line terminator at the
end of a file if there is not one explicitly there. So the OP's technique
will work without any headstanding. Note that handling End_Error provides no
help in this case, because doing so would cause the last line to be
discarded (if there was no implicit line terminator).

GNAT's implementation may be technically correct, but an implementation that
doesn't allow reading the last line of a file without standing on your head
is (practically) broken IMHO. How many people know to worry about this?

                             Randy.