error seeking in file

[Mike Kerner]

I'm on a mac using 4.5.1, trying to mess around with something that I'd like
to put on my ipod eventually.  So I'm trying to open an external file to
hold preferences.

code reads:
put "test" into filename
open file filename
read from file filename until eof
put it into contents
ask "new contents" with contents
put it into contents
write contents to file filename at start

put the result into theresult -- DEBUG
answer "the result is"&& theResult -- DEBUG

close file filename


Since i was not able to update the contents of the file I added the DEBUG
statements in.

When attempting to update filename, the message I am getting in theResult is
"error seeking in file".  What does that mean?  How do I fix it?