Listing 2.

function readfile which
  local zeroLoc
  open file which for read
  if the result is not empty
  then return empty      # file wasn't there!
  read from file which until empty
  close file which
# find any 0 bytes and convert them to spaces
# the offset function returns 0 if not found
  put offset(numToChar(0), it) into zeroLoc
  repeat until zeroLoc is 0
    put space into char zeroLoc of it
    put offset(numToChar(0), it) into zeroLoc
  end repeat
  return it
end readfile