Examining Files

In addition to creating, deleting, copying and moving physical files GAT allows for the application programmer to examine various physical file properties. The application programmer can examine if a physical file is readable or writable. She can get the length of a physical file in bytes, get the time at which the physical file was last modified, and determine if two physical files are ``semantically equivalent.'' Again, GAT hides the application programmer from the (edward) gory details of all this. The programmer simply queries GAT for the apropos information and GAT obeidently replies, no questions asked.