Re: hybrid text/binary mount

[Jeffrey Juliano <juliano at cs dot unc dot edu>]

> > I think that most output is done in more than one character at a time
> > mode.
> 
> Yeah, but consider, for example, raw PBM files.  The first few lines
> are text lines, but after that the data is binary.  One could easily

FYI, emacs has done automatic UNIX/DOS/MAC detection for a while now.  I
use NTemacs all the time, and I don't think it's ever guessed wrong for
me.  I just tested on a raw PBM file, and it got it right.

If you emulated emacs' detection algorithm, then people would have an easy
way to check if a file would be opened binary or text.

Ah, if you implement this feature, may I suggest that `file' be augmented
to tell you wether a file looks to be text or binary?  Oops, cygwin
doesn't have file yet[1].

-jeff


[1] I can't volunteer to give it a try until June, after both the semester
and my wedding.  I'd be willing to give it a shot then, but since this
would be my first attempted contribution, I can't make any timely
promises.