Environment: any ANSI C++-compilant compiler.
Overview
A common way of dealing with file I/O in the Windows environment is utilizing MFC’s CFile class. But what if you, a professional win32 programmer, are having trouble in programming file operations under Linux, Solaris, or another UNIX system? What if you just don’t want to mess with those heavyweight MFC classes?
If your answer is “YES!!!” then the portable ‘File’ class is a cure for all your diseases.
Advantages
- The ‘File’ class utilizes ANSI C++ I/O functions only (I hope.), so it is absolutely portable. There should be no problem in using it on a variety of platforms.
- Works faster and consumes less memory than MFC’s CFile.
- Class interface is identical to MFC’s CFile.
- Look at the documentation (PortableFileClass.hpp file) for some advanced routines.
Disadvantages
- The ‘File’ class is missing routines that deal with file status.
- Rough changing of file size is not yet implemented.
- Error handling is not perfect yet…
Usage
- #include file “PortableFileClass.hpp” to your application’s main .cpp file.
- Declare:
File myFileObject;
where myFileObject is a placeholder for the name of your file object.
- PortableFileClass.hpp file cantains all the required documentation—look at the very beginning of a file.
- Enjoy.
Good luck!
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