suppose I have a structure and a bunch of functions that use some global MYGLOBAL in their calculations. Now I have some function that I will make that will read the value of MYGLOBAL from an ASCII file.
however, I can't define/use said function outside of main(), and I can't define my functions from within main, so how can I use a function to get information (in this case from an ASCII file) that will be used in the definition of other functions?
What are these 'system settings' are supposed to be?
I can't define/use said function outside of main()
Huh? You must define functions outside main(). Or you're doing it without further functions inside main(). It's not difficult: open file -> read data -> close file