OpenEuphoria

So why can't i do this any more?

readfile = open(readfilename,"rb") 
junk = gets(readfile) 
while junk do 
  size += length(junk) 
  puts(1,sprintf("%d",size)&"\r") 
  junk = gets(readfile) 
end while 

It fails to run because junk isn't an atom. But then, if it was an atom, it would be -1, and not execute the while loop. So i still must do the type checks on it.