In a message dated 30 Mar 96, Daniel O'Shea of 3:634/396.1 wrote:

 DO> Just wondering, is there any way to Delete a File from within a Pascal
 DO> Program?

I assume you mean TP/BP - the following works okay under DOS and Windows,
and stores any errors in a global called ESBDosError.

 procedure FDel (FName : PathStr); assembler;
 asm
   mov bx, ds { Save DS }
   lds  si, [FName]    { DS:SI => FileName }

   { Convert to AsciiZ String }

   sub ah, ah
   lodsb   { Load Length into AX }
   mov dx, si  { Leave DS:DX => AsciiZ FileName }
   add si, ax  { Move To End of String }
   mov byte ptr [si], 0  { store 0 at end of string }

   mov  ah, $41        { 41h - DOS Delete File Function }
   {$IFDEF WINDOWS}
   call Dos3Call
   {$ELSE}
   int  $21
   {$ENDIF}
   JC   {at}1            { If Carry Set then Error Occurred }
   sub  ax, ax  { Clear AX }

  {at}1: mov  ds, bx  { Restore DS }
   mov  [ESBDosError], ax  { store Error }
 end;

 DO> Another thing, is there a way to test that a line read from a file is a
 DO> blank line? I've tried:
 DO> If Line = ' ' then...
 DO> If Line = '' then...
 DO> and even
 DO> If Line = Chr(13) + Chr(10) then...
 DO> But none of these seem to work! Help! :^>}}

If you've read a line into a String variable then you need to "Strip" the
spaces then check the length. Let me know if you need a "Strip
Spaces" Routine.

BTW - SWAG is a good library of doing things such as you've asked...

     -Glenn Crouch
      Sysop, Algorithms Anonymous (090) 93-3145 (Australia)
      3:690/643.3
      esbglenn{at}acslink.net.au

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