i said:

>   i'm more interested in source code that makes it work.

>   i've shown how to proceed with the resource-fork approach.

>   gnome, can you give us some routines that make flatfiles work?

gnome informs me backchannel that
he is "too busy with other stuff" to
provide us with any example routines
to implement his "flatfile" suggestion.

so i took a few minutes and wrote some myself...

appended you will find my sample program,
followed by the lines of a "datafile", which
-- as i specified recently -- should be able to
be sent via plain e-mail, as i'm doing here...

splice the program out of this e-mail and save it,
then do likewise with the datafile, as directed below.

the first time you run the program, it will read the data from 
"store.store" and reconstitute 3 pict files on your hard-drive.
double-click 'em to view in simpletext to see what they are.

then rename the 3 files from "filename.new" to "filename.pict",
and delete the "store.store" datafile.  then un-comment out the 
"fn store" line in the program, and run it again.  this time, it will
read the *.pict files in, write the data to "store.store", and then
(as it did the first time) restore the "filename.new" files for you.

i haven't tested this on a wide variety of pict files,
so there may be some bugs in it, but you get the idea.

-bowerbird


COMPILE 0,_caseinsensitive
WINDOW OFF
% _ACount,0
AUTOCLIP=0
WINDOW 1,"",(0,0)-(SYSTEM(_scrnwidth)-100,SYSTEM(_scrnheight)-100),_doc
END GLOBALS

CLEAR LOCAL FN dostore
  DEF OPEN "TEXTttxt"
  OPEN "O",#2,"store.store"
  FOR phile=1 TO 3
    LONG IF phile=1
      filename$="sound.button"
      OPEN "I",#1,"sound.button.pict"
    END IF
    LONG IF phile=2
      filename$="square.button"
      OPEN "I",#1,"square.button.pict"
    END IF
    LONG IF phile=3
      filename$="star"
      OPEN "I",#1,"star.pict"
    END IF
    IF phile<>1 THEN PRINT #2,""
    PRINT #2,"// filename$=";filename$
    z=0
    CLS
    WHILE NOT EOF(1)
      LINE INPUT #1,s$
      FOR x=1 TO LEN(s$)
        z=z+1
        cv$=MID$(STR$(ASC(MID$(s$,x,1))),2)
        WHILE LEN(cv$)<3
          cv$="0"+cv$
        WEND
        PRINT #2,cv$;
        PRINT cv$;
        IF (z MOD 20)=0 THEN PRINT #2,""
        IF (z MOD 20)=0 THEN PRINT
        IF WINDOW(_penv)>WINDOW(_height)-40 THEN CLS
      NEXT x
      eof1=0
      IF EOF(1) THEN eof1=1
      LONG IF LEN(s$)<>254 AND eof1=0
        z=z+1
        PRINT #2,"013";
        PRINT "013";
        IF (z MOD 20)=0 THEN PRINT #2,""
        IF (z MOD 20)=0 THEN PRINT ""
      END IF
      IF WINDOW(_penv)>WINDOW(_height)-40 THEN CLS
    WEND
    CLOSE #1
  NEXT phile
  CLOSE #2
  CLS
END FN

CLEAR LOCAL FN dorestore
  OPEN "I",#1,"store.store"
  DEF OPEN "PICTttxt"
  filename$=""
  WHILE NOT EOF(1)
    LINE INPUT #1,s$
    PRINT s$
    LONG IF MID$(s$,1,3)="// "
      IF filename$<>"" THEN CLOSE #2
      filename$=MID$(s$,14)+".new"
      OPEN "O",#2,filename$
      CLS
      PRINT filename$
    XELSE
      s2$=""
      FOR x=1 TO LEN(s$) STEP 3
        s2$=s2$+CHR$(VAL(MID$(s$,x,3)))
      NEXT x
      PRINT #2,s2$;
    END IF
    IF WINDOW(_penv)>WINDOW(_height)-40 THEN CLS
  WEND
  CLOSE #2
  CLOSE #1
END FN

REM   FN dostore : REM use the datafile below to create the picts first.
FN dorestore
PRINT
PRINT ,"all done.  press command-period."
DO
  HANDLEEVENTS
UNTIL 0


starting with the next line, save this as a textfile named "store.store"
// filename$=sound.button
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