From: "Marrows, George A (GE Energy)" <george.marrows@...>
Date: 2005-07-14T17:12:35+09:00
Subject: Re: [ ruby-Bugs-2101 ] bug in pstore (ruby 1.8.2) on Windows ( Win XP) ?

>Initial Comment:
>The follow error occurs
>
>c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/pstore.rb:163:in `load': marshal data too 
>short (ArgumentError)
>
>The code is run on WinXP ruby version is 1.8.2

I can confirm this.


>Solution:
>I have to change pstore.rb line 101
>from
>        file = File.open(@filename, File::RDWR | File::CREAT)
>to
>        file = File.open(@filename, "a+b")
>to solve this problem


Speaking as a Windows user (at work :-), why do we have the "b" binary file mode for Windows? It just seems to cause problems for newbies/the forgetful on Windows (me included) and for library writers who develop on Unix. Examples ...

http://tinyurl.com/dewo9
http://tinyurl.com/98dyt
http://tinyurl.com/d7nxh
(this is just a selection of the relevant postings - links are to Google Groups)

Can we switch so that Windows files are binary by default and you have to ask for text mode? It might not align with the behaviour of the underlying platform, but I suspect it'll cause less problems. (I also suspect no-one will ever use text mode!)

-- George