X Window Programming from Scratch

Chapter 18. File Formats

In this chapter

• Understanding Files

• Binary File Formatting

• ASCII File Formatting

• Magic Numbers

• Next Steps

As the Graphics Editor project advances in capability, it is increasingly more important for users to be able to save and subsequently restore the graphic objects they work so hard to create, place, and modify during a session of the editor application.

This chapter introduces the concepts and principles governing file formatting as a segue to adding the Save and Load functions used by the Graphics Editor.

Note

The most important concept to draw from this chapter is that the programmer who authors the application that will employ a file decides the format of the data placed in that file.

This can seem a hasty absolute as I point ...