public String readThing() {
            // skip whitespace
//            System.out.println("PAParser: whitespace: \"");
            while (PDFFile.isWhiteSpace(data[loc])) {
//                System.out.print (new String(data, loc, 1));
                loc++;
            }
//            System.out.print("\": thing: ");
            // read thing
            int start = loc;
            while (!PDFFile.isWhiteSpace(data[loc])) {
                loc++;
                if (!PDFFile.isRegularCharacter(data[loc])) {
                    break;  // leave with the delimiter included
                }
            }
            String s = new String(data, start, loc - start);
//            System.out.println(": Read: "+s);
            return s;
        }