Modifying a turing file on a cd-r

[XXX111]

I have a program that uses an external text file to read a list of information. Also, some functions of my program require to write new information to the text file. Since this absolutely has to be on a cd, is there any possible way to manipulate a turing file once it's already burned onto the cd?

Thanks

[TokenHerbz]

you cant manipulate INFO burned into a CD-R.

you'd have to use a CD-RW(re-writable) and re-BURN the info to it..

why can't you use a USB flash drive?

[Tony]

XXX111 @ Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:09 am wrote:

to manipulate a turing file

What are you trying to do?

[XXX111]

thanks for the info guys.. I can't use a usb because my teacher is a bit of a prick and won't accept anything other than a CD-R. I was planning to have the user enter their name into the program at the end and have it output to a textfile to keep track of who used it, but I guess I'll have to remove the entire procedure

[Tony]

There are many other locations where you can write to and read information from.

[XXX111]

Tony @ Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:22 pm wrote:

There are many other locations where you can write to and read information from.

Yes, but I want to have this information constantly updating every time the user plays it - so for example, at the beginning there would be nothing in the text file, then after one person plays it they could type their name and have the text file be updated on the CD-R. I think this is impossible though, but thanks for all of your help.

[TokenHerbz]

you could do that with a normal text file on the PC...

then i guess, if you wanted to transfer that to a disk you could.

[2goto1]

XXX111 @ Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:35 am wrote:

Tony @ Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:22 pm wrote:

There are many other locations where you can write to and read information from.

Yes, but I want to have this information constantly updating every time the user plays it - so for example, at the beginning there would be nothing in the text file, then after one person plays it they could type their name and have the text file be updated on the CD-R. I think this is impossible though, but thanks for all of your help.

You can't continually read and write to/from a CD-R, although you could do that with a CD-RW. CD-R is a one-time recordable disk. If you need to distribute your program on CD-R, perhaps you can develop your program to save data to the user's hard drive. Then when your users re-open your program by running it in the future from your CD-R, your program can open the file that was saved to their hard drive. It simply isn't feasible to do all of this strictly on CD-R.

[XXX111]

so it would work if I used a cd-rw (ex. the user could simply type their info and it would be saved?), or would the text file have to be re-burned each time?

[chrisbrown]

It's a little more complicated than that. Windows won't allow you to simply write data to a CD-RW in the same way that it would a hard drive/USB drive.

There are two ways that I can think of to get the functionality you want:

1) A program that allows you to treat a CD-RW as a removable storage device such as InCD, which would have to be installed on each machine that your program will be run on

2) A utility that allows you to write to CD-RWs through the command line, which you would bundle with your own program.

Short answer: find a better alternative.

[XXX111]

All right, thanks for clarifying that. I think I'm going to have to remove the entire section of the program because my teacher is insisting it absolutely HAS to be on a CD-RW. Thank you for everyone's help and advice.