readToEnd doesn't strictly do what the name suggests

[stirlingstout]

Looking at the source for text-reader it looked as though the readToEnd function doesn't, but does more a readAll, and testing confirms this.

So

var f set to openFileForReading() var line set to f.readLine() print line set line to f.readLine() print line let rest to f.readToEnd() print rest call f.close()

prints the first line of the file, the second line of the file, then all of the file including the first and second lines.

I think it's unlikely you'd ever want to do this, but it is possible, and I think the mismatch between name and implementation is the major problem.

Suggestions:

• make readToEnd start at the currentLine until the end of the file's contents and do the join. This would make the behavior match the name and calling readToEnd on a just opened file does the same as a readAll
• change the name readToEnd to readAll and add a readToEnd that does just read from the current position to the end of the file.

Incidentally the test above demonstrates the issue about line terminators mentioned in #833 since it prints the first two lines with both a terminator from the string being printed and the terminator from print:

118

135

118
135
197
219
245
264
314
321
356
447
471
486
511
544
566
593
625
638
661
751
784
799
842
867
891
912
975
996

[richardpawson]

Fixed

[richardpawson]

On further reflection, I think that having two methods makes things more confusing because, if you are at the start of the file readToEnd and readAll are the same (so lots of 'Which one should I use, Sir?' followed by 'Why?'). Also the need for the (revised) readToEnd is pretty rare - and you can easily do it as a loop yourself in Elan if needed.

So I will reduce the read... methods back to just:

readLine() readWholeFile()

[richardpawson]

Also, for symmetry, I am adding writeWholeFile - in both cases this automatically closes the file.