Re: TextRider.ReadString not require quotes

[Ian Rae <ianrae@istar.ca>]

> From: Michael van Acken <mvacken@t-online.de>
> > From: Ian Rae <ianrae@istar.ca>
> > While we're working on TextRider, here's a suggestion:
> > 
> > Could an option be added that dropped the requirement
> > for strings to be enclosed in single or double quotes in
> > ReadString?
> > 
> > When enabled, ReadString and WriteString would be
> > symmetric.
> 
> You must provide a specification for your strings, e.g. a regular
> expression.  Then you should reconsider if the result is truely
> symmetric.
> 

Darn.  You're right.  I was thinking ReadString should tokenize 
{ non-whitespace chars } but that still wouldn't be symmetric.

> > More importantly, one would be able to use TextRider
> > to parse ordinary tokens (i.e. anything separated by
> > whitespace).  For example, I wanted to read a list
> > of module names, selected in a Bbox text
> > 
> > TextRider.Mod In.Mod Out.Mod
> > 
> > Amazingly one could not easily do this with TextRider!
> > Either one had to wrap the module names in quotes or
> > do ReadChar (!) or ReadIdent (doesn't work if module starts
> > with a digit!).
> 
> Since when can module names start with a digit?  I believe, Scanner
> will give you what you want (although it will choke on
> 2module.command). 

Modules can't start with digits but files in general can.

I withdraw the proposal, and instead intend to create a new
module called Tokenizer that essentially does strtork()-like
parsing, with a user-defined set of delimiter characters.
No point messing up TextRider to support this.

Sample usage:

VAR
t : OttTokenizer.Tokenizer; buf: ARRAY 100 OF CHAR;
BEGIN
t := OttTokenizer.Connect(channel);
(* default delimiters are whitespace chars *)
t.GetToken(buf);
WHILE (t.res = t.done) DO
	(* .. process buf .. *)
	t.GetToken(buf);
END;

OttTokenize will also support some basic ARRAY OF CHAR
to scalar data type conversion routines, to avoid the programmer
having to include IntStr, LRealStr, etc.

n := OttTokenize.ToInt(buf, res);
myRealVar := OttTokenize.ToReal(buf, res);
etc.
 
--Ian