Transput RFC - early version based on POSIX

[chris hermansen]

Good morning everyone,

Jose, thanks for the comments you provided.  One more question below:

On Thu, May 21, 2026 at 2:16 AM Jose E. Marchesi <jemarch@gnu.org> wrote:

>
> Hello Chris.
>
> > Good afternoon everyone,
> >
> > After monkeying around far too long trying to pull out bits of van
> > Vliet's transput so I could implement it piece by piece, I have given up
> on
> > that approach (way too many dependencies between things in there) and am
> > gritting my teeth and starting back at the beginning.
> >
> > To facilitate getting as much as possible working, I'd like to put van
> > Vliet's code and ideas on top of Algol 68 POSIX for now, forgetting about
> > reading and writing binary for the first go-around.
> >
> > Does that make sense?
>
> To me, it makes 100% sense.  In my experience, once you get something
> working it becomes easier to reason about it.  There is a lot to learn
> in the process too.
>
> > Assuming it's not too crazy an idea, the first bump on the road I've
> > encountered is dealing with system file status.  As far as I can tell,
> the
> > only pathway in Algol 68 POSIX for this type of thing is to call fopen()
> or
> > fcreate() with various flags as documented here:
> >
> > https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/ga68/POSIX-files.html
> >
> > and then, based on what works and what doesn't, I can resolve many of van
> > Vliet's "possibles":
> > - get_possible(f) { true if fopen(filename, bits file o rdonly) returns
> ≥ 0
> > }
> > - put_possible(f) { true if fopen(filename, bits file o wronly) returns
> ≥ 0
> > }
> > - bin_possible(f) { always false for now }
> > - compressible(f) { always true - indicates variable length lines }
> > - reset_possible(f) { always true for now }
> > - set_possible(f) { always true for now because lseek() }
> > - backspace_possible(f) { always true for now because lseek() }
> > - reidf_possible(f) { always false for now because Algol 68 transput
> > doesn't provide rename() }
> >
> > Does this sound like an acceptable start?
>
> I think it would be better to call to the system's fstat, a wrapper for
> which needs to be added to the POSIX prelude.
>

Are you suggesting here that (gasp) I add this in and create a patch?

Am I too old a dog to learn a new trick?
-- 
Chris Hermansen · clhermansen "at" gmail "dot" com

C'est ma façon de parler.
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