A.5 library(charsio): I/O on Lists of Character Codes

Compatibility
The naming of this library is not in line with the ISO standard. We believe that the SWI-Prolog native predicates form a more elegant alternative for this library.

This module emulates the Quintus/SICStus library charsio.pl for reading and writing from/to lists of character codes. Most of these predicates are straight calls into similar SWI-Prolog primitives. Some can even be replaced by ISO standard predicates.

[det]format_to_chars(+Format, +Args, -Codes)
Use format/2 to write to a list of character codes.
[det]format_to_chars(+Format, +Args, -Codes, ?Tail)
Use format/2 to write to a difference list of character codes.
write_to_chars(+Term, -Codes)
Write a term to a code list. True when Codes is a list of character codes written by write/1 on Term.
write_to_chars(+Term, -Codes, ?Tail)
Write a term to a code list. Codes\Tail is a difference list of character codes produced by write/1 on Term.
[det]atom_to_chars(+Atom, -Codes)
Convert Atom into a list of character codes.
deprecated
Use ISO atom_codes/2.
[det]atom_to_chars(+Atom, -Codes, ?Tail)
Convert Atom into a difference list of character codes.
[det]number_to_chars(+Number, -Codes)
Convert Atom into a list of character codes.
deprecated
Use ISO number_codes/2.
[det]number_to_chars(+Number, -Codes, ?Tail)
Convert Number into a difference list of character codes.
[det]read_from_chars(+Codes, -Term)
Read Codes into Term.
Compatibility
The SWI-Prolog version does not require Codes to end in a full-stop.
[det]read_term_from_chars(+Codes, -Term, +Options)
Read Codes into Term. Options are processed by read_term/3.
Compatibility
sicstus
[det]open_chars_stream(+Codes, -Stream)
Open Codes as an input stream.
bug
Depends on autoloading library(memfile). As many applications do not need this predicate we do not want to make the entire library dependent on autoloading.
[det]with_output_to_chars(:Goal, -Codes)
Run Goal as with once/1. Output written to current_output is collected in Codes.
[det]with_output_to_chars(:Goal, -Codes, ?Tail)
Run Goal as with once/1. Output written to current_output is collected in Codes\Tail.
[det]with_output_to_chars(:Goal, -Stream, -Codes, ?Tail)
Same as with_output_to_chars/3 using an explicit stream. The difference list Codes\Tail contains the character codes that Goal has written to Stream.