The CREATE statement creates a file in the specified or current directory. ASSIGN opens files. Since Windows supports extendable files, the number of records is ignored and the file is created with a length of zero.
HTBasic supports typed files as well as regular files. HTBasic file types are LIF ASCII, BDAT, BIN and PROG. In a CAT listing, the file type column is blank for regular files. Unlike typed files, no special header or other embedded information is placed in the file.
Do not confuse the terms ASCII (DOS ASCII, Windows ASCII, UNIX ASCII, etc.) and LIF ASCII. A Windows ASCII file is a regular file which contains only printable characters and the end of each line is marked with a carriage return and line feed. A UNIX ASCII file is a regular file which contains only printable characters and the end of each line is marked with a line feed. A LIF ASCII file is a typed file which contains string items preceded by an item length and followed by a pad byte when the string length is odd. When the term "ASCII" is used in the HTBasic manual set or in a CAT listing, it refers to LIF ASCII. When the term is used outside the manual set, you will need to determine for yourself what kind of ASCII is spoken of.
