From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2005-08-06T00:30:37+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie - Help with using puts to binary file

On 8/5/05, Peter Bailey <NoSpam@nospam.com> wrote:
> I am writing a templating system to replace tags and values in template
> files. I am quite new to Ruby and am not sure I am going about things
> correctly. My prog runs great on text files, rtf, etc., but I am running
> into problems outputting to binary formats (e.g. word - sigh). My program
> just reads the whole file into a string, works on that, and then I
> output to another file using puts. This causes grief for word or open
> office etc when it tries to open the newly created file.
> 
> I tried a simple test just reading in the file and writing it out, and I
> see that the puts adds 1 byte to the eof, a LF (working on OS X). I got
> the impression from reading docs that the puts would not mess with my
> ouput, but that is obviously not the case, as my simple test has shown.
> 
> So, can anyone point me to a better way to write out the binary data so
> that it is not altered (except by me on purpose). I looked at the data
> input into a string, and it is correct. It is the output that is
> breaking things.
> 
> Any help/pointers to explanations of how puts really works etc. or
> better alternatives much appreciated.

#puts will add an LF if it isn't present at the end of the output.
#print will not and #write will not. When I'm writing binary data, I
tend to use IO#write.

-austin
-- 
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com
               * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca