+
+/**
+ * Converts a string into a long using strtol().
+ * This is a convenience wrapper checking the parsing result. It returns true
+ * if the number could be parsed.
+ */
+bool parse_long(const char *str, long *out, int base);
+
+/**
+ * Slurp reads path in its entirety into buf, returning the length of the file
+ * or -1 if the file could not be read. buf is set to a buffer of appropriate
+ * size, or NULL if -1 is returned.
+ *
+ */
+ssize_t slurp(const char *path, char **buf);
+
+/**
+ * Convert a direction to its corresponding orientation.
+ *
+ */
+orientation_t orientation_from_direction(direction_t direction);