Ticket #0001937

Type	Issue	Status	reviewed	Date	20-Jan-2013 01:22
Version	2.101.0	Category	Unspecified	Submitted by	PeterWood
Platform	All	Severity	minor	Priority	normal

Summary	Values cannot be saved to a .txt file without conversion to string! first
Description	>> mi: #00000002 == #00000002 >> save %mi.txt mi Script error: encode does not allow issue! for its data argument Where: if save ** Near: if lib/all [ not header any [file? where url? where]...
Example code

Assigned to	n/a	Fixed in	-	Last Update	20-Jan-2013 06:02

Comments
(0003380) BrianH 20-Jan-2013 06:01	The problem here is that you were trying to use SAVE to save to a .txt file, and .txt files aren't considered to be Rebol data; they're considered to be text, for which we have a codec. When you LOAD from or SAVE to a file type for which we have a codec, the data goes through the codec instead of just being treated like Rebol source. SAVE calls ENCODE and LOAD calls DECODE. We have a text codec that on decode detects and decodes various Unicode text encodings, converting them to values of the string! type. On encode it converts a string! to one of those Unicode encodings, I think UTF-8 by default. Text doesn't have any fixed syntax, no standard way to format Rebol values, so if you're converting stuff to text you have to decide for yourself how you want them formatted, which means you have to format them yourself using FORM, MOLD, something else, you decide. If you have some non-string value then you haven't decided yet, so it doesn't know how to format it. Rebol source, on the other hand, is binary. UTF-8 binary, with the body possibly compressed into a compressed binary, and matching a specific syntax. It's a lot more restrictive than regular text, so SAVE doesn't have to make any decisions about how to format it. So the situation is that this is not actually a bug, it's done on purpose. As an issue: Should it be? Rebol source is binary, and sometimes it's really binary. When .txt files are transmitted over a network, their line endings may be changed, and this would break checksums at least. And compressed scripts may not even be loadable in a text editor like Notepad, something people tend to do with .txt files. So there would be downsides to removing %.txt from the file types for the text codec.

Comments

(0003380)
BrianH
20-Jan-2013 06:01

The problem here is that you were trying to use SAVE to save to a .txt file, and .txt files aren't considered to be Rebol data; they're considered to be text, for which we have a codec. When you LOAD from or SAVE to a file type for which we have a codec, the data goes through the codec instead of just being treated like Rebol source. SAVE calls ENCODE and LOAD calls DECODE.

We have a text codec that on decode detects and decodes various Unicode text encodings, converting them to values of the string! type. On encode it converts a string! to one of those Unicode encodings, I think UTF-8 by default. Text doesn't have any fixed syntax, no standard way to format Rebol values, so if you're converting stuff to text you have to decide for yourself how you want them formatted, which means you have to format them yourself using FORM, MOLD, something else, you decide. If you have some non-string value then you haven't decided yet, so it doesn't know how to format it.

Rebol source, on the other hand, is binary. UTF-8 binary, with the body possibly compressed into a compressed binary, and matching a specific syntax. It's a lot more restrictive than regular text, so SAVE doesn't have to make any decisions about how to format it.

So the situation is that this is not actually a bug, it's done on purpose. As an issue: Should it be?

Rebol source is binary, and sometimes it's really binary. When .txt files are transmitted over a network, their line endings may be changed, and this would break checksums at least. And compressed scripts may not even be loadable in a text editor like Notepad, something people tend to do with .txt files. So there would be downsides to removing %.txt from the file types for the text codec.

Date	User	Field	Action	Change
20-Jan-2013 06:02	BrianH	Summary	Modified	Most values cannot be saved to a .txt file => Values cannot be saved to a .txt file without conversion to string! first
20-Jan-2013 06:01	BrianH	Comment : 0003380	Added	-
20-Jan-2013 03:57	BrianH	Summary	Modified	Issue! values cannot be saved => Most values cannot be saved to a .txt file
20-Jan-2013 03:57	BrianH	Description	Modified	-
20-Jan-2013 03:57	BrianH	Severity	Modified	major => minor
20-Jan-2013 03:57	BrianH	Status	Modified	submitted => reviewed
20-Jan-2013 03:57	BrianH	Type	Modified	Bug => Issue
20-Jan-2013 03:57	BrianH	Platform	Modified	Mac OSX => All
20-Jan-2013 01:22	PeterWood	Ticket	Added	-