cannot read text file

[haupz]

Hello,

Legrand, in Chapter D6.6, deals with reading text files. The instructions to bring helper functions for that purpose into the workspace are as follows:

Code: Select all

)copy files Files
⎕Path ← 'Files'


These commands execute without problems, but the ReadAllText function is not visible thereafter.

The book remarks where the functions are defined: "You will find them in a workspace named Files.dws, delivered with Dyalog APL." However, the Dyalog distribution does not appear to include a workspace with that name. The companion files do contain one, and I presume this is the one that gets loaded.

(This is all in Dyalog 16.)

Grateful for any pointer,

Michael

[Vince|Dyalog]

Hi Michael,

The files workspace is in a ws subdirectory of the Dyalog install. This should be on your WS path by default, so you should be able to just )load files like this:

      )load files
C:\Program Files\Dyalog\Dyalog APL-64 16.0 Unicode\ws\files.dws saved Sun Dec  3 20:01:28 2017

      Files.ReadAllText 'e:\tmp\test.txt'
abc             
abc             
abc             
abc             

      ⎕nget 'e:\tmp\test.txt'
 abc                               
abc                                
abc                                
abc                                
  UTF-8-NOBOM  10

As you can see, there is a system function to read text called ⎕NGET. You may prefer to use that.

Regards,

Vince

[haupz]

Hi Vince,

I should probably have mentioned that I'm on macOS. The files.dws workspace doesn't seem to be located in the ws directory belonging to the Dyalog distribution.

Code: Select all

ws $ pwd
/Applications/Dyalog-16.0.app/Contents/Resources/Dyalog/ws
ws $ ls
apl2in.dws   dfns.dws   groups.dws   ops.dws      smdemo.dws   tutor.dws
apl2pcin.dws   display.dws   isolate.dws   quadna.dws   smdesign.dws   util.dws
buildse.dws   eval.dws   loaddata.dws   rconnect.dws   smtutor.dws   xfrcode.dws
conga.dws   fonts.dws   max.dws      salt.dws   sqapl.dws   xlate.dws
ddb.dws      ftp.dws      min.dws      sharpplot.dws   tube.dws


Is that workspace a Windows-only thing?

Anyway, thanks for the pointer to ⎕nget; I will work with that and look for system functions substituting the other functions Legrand mentions.

Best,

Michael