ofDirectory ofFile ofBuffer confusion

Hi there,

I tried to load text files in some folder by using the ofDirectory -> ofFile -> ofBuffer chain but the buffer was always empty:

ofDirectory dir;
dir.open("folder");
dir.allowExt("txt");
dir.sort();

ofBuffer buffer = dir.getFile(0).readToBuffer();
ofLogVerbose("buffer") << buffer.getText(); //always empty 

The file itself is just fine. If I open the file directly without ofDirectory it works. Or if I use ofBufferFromFile().

ofFile file;
file.open("folder/test.txt");
ofBuffer buffer = file.readToBuffer();
ofLogVerbose("text") << buffer.getText(); //works

ofBuffer buffer = ofBufferFromFile(dir.getFile(0).getAbsolutePath()); //works too

It also doesn't matter if I use readToFile() or pass the file into the constructor directly like in the examples ofBuffer buffer(file).

Additionally to this problem I think the naming is quite confusing. I expected sth. like ofFile::getBuffer() and only found ofFile::getFileBuffer() which returns some internal buffer format basic_filebuf<char>. The examples only shows ofBuffer buffer(file) which uses some indirect chained conversion (?). The filename <-> ofBuffer helper methods are really useful but maybe should also accept ofFiles and not just the path as a string.

I'm happy to work on this but would like to discuss it first.

Best,
Felix

Start by reproducing the reported ofDirectory, ofFile, and ofBuffer chain from the issue, then inspect the related APIs and their existing examples. Done means the directory-derived file loads text consistently with direct file loading, with the API behavior and naming concerns addressed or clearly separated.