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Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 14:45:55 -0700
From: Blake Chapman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Any File System for Icon Yet?
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Status: RO

Icon Project,

I have downloaded, installed, and done some little
programs in Icon for Windows.  I find that the documentation
that comes with the package is missing library routines
that are actually present; that is, it doesn't document them.
The free manual from
<http://www.toolsofcomputing.com/freesoftware.htm>
documents some missing routines, like xencode() and
xdecode(), and they work.  I find no routines to pluck
one element out of the middle of a list, or insert one in.
Are there such routines?   Would I get documentation
of the if I got the book?  At $35 a student like myself
has to find out whether Icon has enough library routines
to support real programming problems before I buy it.
There is no mention of any file system in downloaded
documentation.  To work on persistent data I have
to write a whole list out with xencode() and read it in
with xdecode().  I read in the Dec. 1, 1998 Icon
Newsletter the article titled "Database Connectivity":
"Work is beginning at UT San Antonio, with generous support from the
National
Library of Medicine, on a high-level database interface to Icon. The
initial
implementation will emphasize Windows Icon ...".

Is this done yet?  If not, is there even a primitive file system
available, with a B-tree index method and data file
access routines?

Icon is a nice language; very powerful!

Blake Chapman