Personally I vote for #1 - true file handling capability.

Statements like:

   OpenFile
   CloseFile
   ReadFile
   WriteFile
   PositionFile
   LockFile
   UnLockFile

Should cover about 95% (or more) of my needs.

John

At 99/01/10 06:55 PM , Stan Sieler wrote:
>Steve Bloom writes:
>> I am trying to use "<" and ">" redirection to send information from a
>> job to a print file.  I tried doing this:
<snip>
>> Instead, each line opens a new Spoolfile.
>
>Yep.
>
<snip>
>
>Lobby for one or both of:
>
>  1) true file handling capability within CI (e.g., open a file, get back
>     a handle (file #), and ability to use it in commands (echo >!filenum)
>     or in new CI functions (e.g.: WRITE (filenum, "this should be line two")
>
>  2) request "open printer APPEND" to search for the job/session's most
>     recently created (and not-yet-printed) spoolfile, and open it for
>     append mode.  Note: I haven't thought a lot about possible ramifications
>     of this.
>
>--
>Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask]
>                                     http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html

--------------------------------------------------------------
John Korb                            email: [log in to unmask]
Innovative Software Solutions, Inc.

The thoughts, comments, and opinions expressed herein are mine
and do not reflect those of my employer(s), or anyone else.