[erlang-questions] matching binary against a file

[Jeff Rogers]

Mike McNally wrote:
>> Now this is all fine as long as I first read the entire string into 
>> memory, but because you can't know beforehand how many bytes will be 
>> read you have to overestimate and then handle whatever is left over.
> 
> I've had success with a pattern that involves one process that reads the
> file block by block and only handles (in your case) the UTF-8
> interpretation. That process can send each value (character code) it
> recognizes to a client process.  The higher-level code then gets a
> stream of ready-to-use characters just by calling "receive".

(Sorry for the double send)

But what is the best way for implementing this other process (which I 
imagine ends up looking something like 'file' but with different 
functions for reading different data types)?  Catch the match and read 
the next block on a badmatch?

e.g.,
read_3bytes({Buffer, File}) ->
   case catch << Bytes:3/binary, Remainder/binary >> = Buffer of
     {EXIT,{{badmatch,_},_} ->
       {ok,NextBlock}=file:read(File,BLOCKSIZE),
       read_3bytes({<< Buffer/binary, NextBlock/binary >>, File);
     Any ->
       {ok, Bytes, {Remainder, File}}
   end.

This seems reasonable enough, except that I must transform every 
instance of the binary match this way.  I'd like to just wrap this in 
something cleaner and more maintainable than repeating the same block of 
code 20-odd times.  But there isn't any way to pass a pattern to a 
wrapping function and say "try to match this pattern and if it fails, do 
some stuff and try again".  Maybe I could make it into a macro, or make 
the binary match into a fun and pass that?  I'm not sure what the erlish 
way is.

Thanks
-J