03/06/80  apl_read_segment_ external function

Function: reads a segment into an apl character value.


Usage:
   )MFN READ_SEGMENT APL_READ_SEGMENT_
   RESULT -< READ_SEGMENT 'PATH'


Arguments:
PATH
   is the pathname of the segment to be read. It can be relative or
   absolute. The bitcount must be set.

RESULT
   is the character value that is returned by the function.


Notes:
The segment is read in as a character vector, containing as many elements as
there are bytes in the segment. Thus, lines are separated by new line
characters (octal 012), not the usual apl matrix convention. The qCS system
variable may be subscripted to obtain a new line character in a program.

While the most useful form is probably to read in text segments, no restriction
is placed on the type of data that may be read; any segment is ok.

This is the most efficient method for reading data from segments into apl.


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Historical Background

This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated
to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. 
as a contribution to computer science knowledge.  
This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL
and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. 
Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970),
renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership
of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture 
for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems 
incorporated Multics principles.
Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 
as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. .

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Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies
and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting
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to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission.
    Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS
    All Rights Reserved