Subject: Re: (open :direction :probe ...) vs probe-file From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 24 Jan 2004 14:44:30 +0000 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3283944270455837KL2065E@naggum.no> * Peter Seibel | I admit I hadn't thought of using it to carry around the element-type | information for later use. Not only that, it is useful to remember the external-format argument to be used to open a particular file. The pathname is unable to carry all this information around. | I never realized that passing a stream as a pathname designator to | OPEN *should* convey anything more than the name of the file that the | stream was associated with. I just reread the OPEN dictionary entry | and didn't see anything to suggest that; did I miss it or is it | somewhere else in the spec? No, it just falls in the category of my reasonable expectations, which may or may not be codified or shared by others. Now I realize that I had written my own open that effectively did (open <stream> ... :element-type (stream-element-type <stream>) :external-format (stream-external-format <stream>)) in addition to figuring out the direction of the stream if :direction was not explicitly specified. -- Erik Naggum | Oslo, Norway Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder. Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.