first cut: establishes base helper classes and main

helpers.h

Index: helpers.h
diff --git a/helpers.h b/helpers.h
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+// Copyright (c) 2010 The Chromium OS Authors. All rights reserved.
+// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
+// found in the LICENSE file.
+//
+// Provides basic file reading and parsing helpers for use in PlatformReader
+// and PlatformReader derived classes.  Nothing fancy.
+
+#ifndef CROS_BOOT_MODE_HELPERS_H_
+#define CROS_BOOT_MODE_HELPERS_H_
+
+#include <sys/types.h>
+
+namespace cros_boot_mode {
+namespace helpers {
+
+// atoi, using sscanf
+int to_int(const char *str, size_t length);
+
+// very simple wrapper of fopen,fread,fclose.
+size_t read_file(const char *path, char *buf, size_t max_bytes);
+
+}  // namespace helpers
+}  // namespace cros_boot_mode
+#endif  // CROS_BOOT_MODE_HELPERS_H_