James Holsenback <nom### [at] nonecom> wrote:
> On 04/24/2013 09:14 AM, scott wrote:

> I think the fopen directive (the paragraph after the syntax diagram)
> explains the concept adequately, however I'll admit the inconsistent
> usage of IDENTIFIER /instead/ of FILE_HANDLE_IDENTIFIER as the following
> examples use ... is perhaps the true root of the misunderstanding.

Basically, yes, (And thanks for making the change to the wiki--I just took a
look.)

BUT (and I hate to beat this poor old horse much longer) the question of what is
an 'open file' there still rankles me.  It's this line in the docs (used
repeatedly):

"Where FILE_HANDLE_IDENTIFIER is the previously opened file."

In purely SDL nomenclature, would that really be considered the opened file? I
know this seems like I'm nit-picking about semantics, but in all other uses in
POV-Ray, an 'opened file' would be a file *name* (like my_scene.pov or
my_include.inc.) Perhaps in a different or more advanced programming
environment, FILE_HANDLE_IDENTIFIER would indeed mean just such a thing. But
within POV-Ray, 'opened file' may not be the right moniker to use. (I admit that
I don't have any clue what it could be changed to and still make sense in that
sentence, as the concept is beyond me. 'Pointer'??)

BTW, I did try searching for #read (#write etc) in the wiki before posting this
thread, but it didn't pull up anything there(!). Entering 'write' did--no #
sign--but nothing in the list of topics seemed appropriate (or maybe I didn't
look closely enough.) I didn't think to try 'I/O directives.'

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