From: Robert McGovern <tarasis@...>
Date: 2002-12-27T09:29:14+09:00
Subject: Re: Occasional Issue reading bytes of data

> I have an issue where sometimes (20 times in 17,000 files) when I am
> reading data from a file I don't get the value I expect.
>
> I am opening a file, reading the first 10 bytes and unpacking them as
> Z3CCCCCCC. The issue appears that if one of the C values is 0x1A it is
> read & unpacked as nil rather than 26. 


Found my problem, I needed to open the file in binary mode ("rb" - kinda 
fitting) for the bytes to be read in correctly.

Why is it that Windows has a binary file mode? What is the effect of 
using the "b" flag on *nix platforms? is it simply ignored?

Rob