InFile method usage

[Rick Riolo]

I'll have to admit I don't use the Swarm input/output
objects much...I just use my old c routines.

That said, I have a couple of questions/possible suggstions 
about InFile methods:

1. Does a method like getDouble (&friends) span
   white space (blanks,tabs,newlines) 
   before deciding if the next token is a double, and if so, 
   loading it into the given double variable?

   If not, I would suggest that it be changed to do that.
   It would be so much more useful, I think.

2. Does getDouble accept values like
       22  32  4444
   as valid double values?

3. If input looks like:
        333.3   abc   4443.3
   and I send three getDouble messages to anInFile,
   will it read 333.3 ok, return error for abc,
   then read 4443.3 ok?
   That is, does it leave the InFile read-point
   after the "abc" after an error?

Basically, I'm trying to use the InFile methods
to (easily) read files that look like this:

# a comment line
# another comment line
 1.5  2.5  3.5
11.5 12.5 13.5
# another comment line
21.5 22.5 23.5

such that it skips the comment lines, but picks
up the other values one after another as doubles.
What's the simplest way to do that?
(Maybe its just to use anInFile to read in lines,
check the first char for # and skip if need be,
otherwise use sscanf to read the values?)
Any suggestions?
(I'm trying various things, and none I've stumbled
on look very elegant).

thanks.
 - r

Rick Riolo                           address@hidden
Program for Study of Complex Systems (PSCS)
4477 Randall Lab                
University of Michigan         Ann Arbor MI 48109-1120
Phone: 734 763 3323                  Fax: 734 763 9267
http://www.pscs.umich.edu/PEOPLE/rlr-home.html


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