Hello fellow Scripters:

        Spam vs Ham aside, Applescript is doing something that I quite
don't understand.  I have a small script looking like this:

set FileName to "Macintosh HD:source code:Applescript Convert:TestScripts:Example 2" as alias

set FileHandle to open for access FileName without write permission

set buf to read FileHandle until return
display dialog "|" & buf & "|"

set tempbuf to read FileHandle before "$"
display dialog "|" & tempbuf & "|"

set tempbuf to read FileHandle before return

display dialog "|" & tempbuf & "|"
close access FileHandle


The actual file from which data is being read looks like this for the
first, say five lines:

$$17$Y211419.003A$07$B$00410000$011208$

$20$
[TB1,48.0,48.0,516.0,276.0][LD14][RR][NH][LYNN][PS10][BF]This is
page [SPGN][EBF].  Page size is 7.  A vermilion moon hung gibbous

The first and second DISPLAY DIALOGs perform as expected, the first
displaying the very first line of text and includes the RETURN character,
the second displaying only a return character.  The third DISPLAY DIALOG,
however, displays only a "20$" regardless of whether I am using READ
BEFORE or READ UNTIL.

I really, really need that dollar sign in the data that precedes the "20."
 Can anyone suggest a remedy?

R,

John A.M. Darnell
Software Development
In honor of THE MATRIX RELOADED:
In the first movie, close to the climax, Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss
take a harrowing express ride up an elevator by explosively disconnecting
the counterweight.  Just before activating the detonator, Reeves says
something.  What was it that he said?