As can be seen in previous examples, the core of XSharper output is <print> action, which outputs a string to console.
To make output a bit nicer, mimic operating system streams, and also categorize output, there are 5 output options.
Name | Purpose | Default direction |
---|---|---|
^out | Normal output | Standard output |
^bold | More visible output, like section names etc. | Standard output |
^info | Optional output | Standard output, unless //quiet is specified |
^error | Error messages | Standard error |
^debug | Debug messages | None. Debug output (can be seen with dbgview utility) if //debug switch is specified. Also copied to standard output, if //debugc switch is specified |
^nul,^null | No output |
In many actions it's possible to specify where the output goes via outTo attribute.
<print>This goes to standard output</print> <print outTo="^bold">This is bold</print> <print outTo="^info">This won't be shown if executed with //quiet</print> <print outTo="^debug">This is debug output</print> <print outTo="^error">This is error</print>
Also the same outTo may redirect the output to a variable
<print outTo="food">Macaroni and cheese</print> <print>Today's special is ${food}</print>
also if variable name is preceded by +, value is appended to the variable instead of overwriting it
<print outTo="food">Macaroni</print> <print outTo="+food"> and cheese</print> <print>Today's special is ${food}</print>
Text file may be used for output using ^# prefix. Also, append is possible by using +^# prefix. Also, after | encoding may be specified (default to UTF8 with BOM)
<print outTo="^#c:\hello.bat|ascii">echo Hello, world</print> <shell>c:\hello.bat</shell>
By default, print appends a new line to every string output, that may be switched off using newline="false" attribute:
<print newline="false">This is normal.</print> <print newline="false">This is bold</print> <print>This is normal again<print>
Output to one stream may be redirected to another:
<redirect outTo="^error"> <print>This goes to error</print> </redirect>
Or to a file (in UTF8 w/o BOM):
<set filename="output.txt|utf8/nobom" /> <redirect outTo="^#${filename}"> <print>Line1</print> <print>Line2</print> </redirect>
Or can add + to append:
<set filename="output.txt|utf8/nobom" /> <redirect outTo="+^#${filename}"> <print>Line3</print> <print>Line4</print> </redirect>
Reading a text file into a variable is easy.
<readtext from="file.txt" outTo="x" />
Or just can out it to console instead:
<readtext from="file.txt" outTo="^out" />
If it's known in advance that the file is in UTF8
<readtext from="file.txt|utf8" outTo="x" />
or
<readtext from="file.txt " outTo="x" encoding="utf8" />
Or, if the file is on the web-server:
<readtext from="http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/victcost.txt" outTo="x" />
Finally, a multi-expression can be used as well (although XML often better demonstrates writer's intentions)
<set x="${= c.ReadText('http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/victcost.txt')}" />
Writing a text file is just as easy
<set txt="Hello, world" /> <writeText to="c:\file.txt" encoding="utf8/nobom" />
To save as UTF16 with byte order mark:
<set txt="Hello, world" /> <writeText to="c:\file.txt" encoding="utf16/bom" />
Or, can just use print instead
<set txt="Hello, world" /> <print newline='false' outTo='^#c:\file.txt|utf16/bom'>${x}</print>