I just wrote something similar about a tiny program I recently wrote (systhread.net/texts/200708etucross.php). I was writing a small piece of software designed to fit into another software system. I had come across a change I needed to make and thought I might have to do some very serious voodoo to do something as simple as determine a file type. It turned out that the software system I was writing for already had the capability (and many more that I have not explored yet). The pit of success here would be learning to rely on the pre-existing software system