Re: bug in read-lines: skips empty lines

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006, Raymond Martin wrote:
>>
>> read-lines should return an empty string for an empty line.
>> Here is a fix that works on a unix platform:
>>
>> --- orig/lsh/libc/shell.lsh
>> +++ mod/lsh/libc/shell.lsh
>> @@ -75,8 +75,9 @@
>>   (de read-lines(f)
>>     (reading f
>>       (let ((ans ()))
>> -      (while (<> (skip-char "\n\r\f") "\e")
>> -        (setq ans (cons (read-string) ans)))
>> +      (while (<> (skip-char "") "\e")
>> +        (setq ans (cons (read-string) ans))
>> +       (read-string 1)) ;; need a function 'read-newline' here
>>         (reverse ans))))
>>
>
> Isn't the function name "read-lines" something of a misnomer. Shouldn't
> it be more like "read-file-lines", it only works with a filename/descriptor
> and does not match with "write-lines" (for which a "write-file-lines" might
> also be appropriate).

Good point.

But rather than renaming "read-lines" to "read-file-lines" I'd consider
generalizing function 'reading' instead (i.e., merge current 'reading'
and 'reading-string'). Without changing a line of code, 'read-lines'
could then read lines from whatever 'reading' is able to deal with. A
nice example of "generic programming".

Ralf



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