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Buffers and Files
A file is named a list of characters stored on some form of secondary
storage.
A buffer is a structure in AE which has a name (usually a filename), and a
language. A buffer holds a list of lines and is effectively equivelent to
a fold. Some of these lines can be folds and virtual folds and so the buffer
can hold a lot more than is visible at first sight.
There are mechanisms for creating and deleting buffers, along with reading
files into and out of them (ie: buffer_read and buffer_write).
Because a buffer has a language associated with it, the editing
characteristics of one buffer may differ from another.
The language of a buffer is derived when the buffer is created from the
filename the buffer is given. It does this by the use of a list of language
definitions specified (usually) in the configuration file.
Files can be read into a buffer using block_read and parts of a buffer
may be written to a file using block_write.
The editor stores folding information is reserved comments. These vary from
language to language, and are set up by language_create. Because the
folding information is stored in comments, any compilers and assemblers
will ignore it. This eliminates the need for a 'folded file' to 'compilable
file' conversion process.
See Also:
Lines and Folds
Blocks
Reserved comments
language_create
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