Files

Abstract

The aims of this chapter are:

• to review the process of file creation at a terminal

• to introduce more formally the idea of the file as a fundamental entity

• to show how files can be declared explicitly by the OPEN and CLOSE statements

• to introduce the arguments for the OPEN and CLOSE statements

• to demonstrate the interaction between the READ/WRITE statements and the OPEN/CLOSE statements;

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.