Read and Write to Same File

[Max Kirillov]

On Sun, Oct 05, 2003 at 11:37:16AM +0200, Tomasz Zielonka wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 05, 2003 at 04:25:41AM -0000, kuq32tr02 at sneakemail.com wrote:
>> 2.
>> main = do text <- readFile "test"
>>           let something = somefunc text
>>           writeFile "test" $! something
>>
>> Are both of these correct (guaranteed to give the behavior I want)?  Which is better (and why)?

depends on your "somefunc"

try:
--------------------
somefunc = show . f . read
    where   f :: (Show a, Read a, Num a) => [a] -> (a,a)
	    f ls = (sum (take 3 ls), mul (take 3 ls))


mul :: (Num a) => [a] -> a
mul = foldr (*) 1
---------------------

if somefunc read all the needed data before returning the result, then
the program will either work correctly or give an exception. I think
throwing an exception here is wrong.

so:
---------------
somefunc = (show . f . read)
    where   f :: (Show a, Read a, Num a) => [a] -> (a,a)
	    f ls = seq (ls!!2) (sum (take 3 ls), mul (take 3 ls))
---------------

must be OK.

> There is no guarantee that $! will force evaluation of the entire
> 'something', so you can start writing to file before you finished
> reading from it. Hopefully it will cause an exception (like in GHC),
> otherwise you could damage your data (like in Hugs). 

If "test" is not a regular file (say, "/dev/modem"), then it is 100%
legal program. So throwing any exception here is not correct (I believe
it is done by ghc runtime, since there is nothing exceptional in opening
a file for writing already opened for reading, at least in Unix). Anyway
such a "defence" will not work with concurrently running programs.

-- 
Max