file handling

[Benjamin Kaplan]

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 10:35 PM, madhuri vio <madhuri.vio at gmail.com> wrote:
> i have a doubt about ...this..can u look into this..
>
> a = open("human.odt","r")
> b = a.readlines()
> print b
>
> and i get d output something else...
>
> python monday.py
> ["PK\x03\x04\x14\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xd6+\xce<^\xc62\x0c'\x00\x00\x00'\x00\x00\x00\x08\x00\x00\x00mimetypeapplication/vnd.oasis.opendocument.textPK\x03\x04\x14\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xd6+\xce<\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x1a\x00\x00\x00Configurations2/statusbar/PK\x03\x04\x14\x00\x08\x00\x08\x00\xd6+\xce<\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'\x00\x00\x00Configurations2/accelerator/current.xml\x03\x00PK\x07\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00PK\x03\x04\x14\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xd6+\xce<\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x18\x00\x00\x00Configurations2/floater/PK\x03\x04\x14\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xd6+\xce<\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x1a\x00\x00\x00Configurations2/popupmenu/PK\x03\x04\x14\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xd6+\xce<\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x1c\x00\x00\x00Configurations2/progressbar/PK\x03\x04\x14\x00\x00\x00\x00\
>
> something of this sort...i have asked this doubt earlier..noe i am unable to
> proceed...
> can u help me in this
>
> --
> madhuri :)
>

Well yes, this is exactly what you should get. Do you understand how
files work? They are all just 1s and 0s. Different programs have
different ways of interpreting those 1s and 0s. Python's open
statement works like a basic text editor- it reads a byte and matches
it to a character. There is no formatting, there is no color, there
are no fonts. It just reads the bytes, and prints out the character or
the hex code if it doesn't know how to print that byte. The three
letters at the end of the file mean nothing- they're just part of the
file name. In reality, all they do is tell your Operating System which
program to use when you try to open the file.

Now other programs will do something else to it. 7-zip will see this
as a zip-compressed folder and uncompress it. OpenOffice for instance
will look at this file as a document. It will call a routine that
looks at this file as a zip-compressed folder and will uncompress it.
Then, another routine will see it as a directory containing XML files,
images, and whatever else is in there. It will parse those XML files
and create the image of the document which then gets displayed on the
screen.

If you want to read an odt file in a coherent way, you need a library
that understands the odt format. The open function isn't magic- it
just reads files.