Win32 System Services: The Heart of Windows® 98 and Windows® 2000

2.1. The Possibilities

Files are important in Windows because many different objects are accessed using the file routines. Certain techniques are used in the 32-bit API to open a file, read from it and write to it, and close the file. The API uses identical techniques to work with communications ports (Chapter 11), named pipes, and mailslots on the network (Chapter 8). Therefore, understanding how to work with files is central to understanding many communications task in Windows.

Files are quite interesting in Windows because of all the different capabilities built into the 32-bit API for working with them. For example:

• As you would expect, you can open, read, and write files. (See Sections 2.3 and 2.7.)

• You can also open and read compressed files ...