--- a/TODO	Wed Nov 23 13:22:47 2016 +0000
+++ b/TODO	Wed Nov 23 20:12:20 2016 +0100
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-* Implement per-block compression using `snap` (http://burntsushi.net/rustdoc/snap/)
-* Implement helpers to easily open files for reading/writing
-* Write blocks directly to disk while writing? (Avoiding high memory consumption)

--- a/src/table_builder.rs	Wed Nov 23 13:22:47 2016 +0000
+++ b/src/table_builder.rs	Wed Nov 23 20:12:20 2016 +0100
@@ -3,7 +3,9 @@
 use options::{CompressionType, BuildOptions};
 use iterator::{Comparator, StandardComparator};
 
-use std::io::Write;
+use std::io::{Result, Write};
+use std::fs::{File, OpenOptions};
+use std::path::Path;
 use std::cmp::Ordering;
 
 use crc::crc32;
@@ -107,6 +109,15 @@
     }
 }
 
+impl TableBuilder<StandardComparator, File> {
+    /// Open/create a file for writing a table.
+    /// This will truncate the file, if it exists.
+    pub fn new_to_file(file: &Path) -> Result<TableBuilder<StandardComparator, File>> {
+        let f = try!(OpenOptions::new().create(true).write(true).truncate(true).open(file));
+        Ok(TableBuilder::new(f, BuildOptions::default(), StandardComparator))
+    }
+}
+
 impl<C: Comparator, Dst: Write> TableBuilder<C, Dst> {
     /// Create a new TableBuilder.
     pub fn new(dst: Dst, opt: BuildOptions, cmp: C) -> TableBuilder<C, Dst> {

--- a/src/table_reader.rs	Wed Nov 23 13:22:47 2016 +0000
+++ b/src/table_reader.rs	Wed Nov 23 20:12:20 2016 +0100
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 
 use std::cmp::Ordering;
 use std::io::{Error, ErrorKind, Read, Seek, SeekFrom, Result};
+use std::fs::{File, OpenOptions};
+use std::path::Path;
 
 /// Reads the table footer.
 fn read_footer<R: Read + Seek>(f: &mut R, size: usize) -> Result<Footer> {
@@ -53,6 +55,16 @@
     }
 }
 
+impl Table<File, StandardComparator> {
+    /// Directly open a file for reading.
+    pub fn new_from_file(file: &Path) -> Result<Table<File, StandardComparator>> {
+        let f = try!(OpenOptions::new().read(true).open(file));
+        let len = try!(f.metadata()).len() as usize;
+
+        Table::new(f, len, ReadOptions::default(), StandardComparator)
+    }
+}
+
 impl<R: Read + Seek, C: Comparator> Table<R, C> {
     /// Open a table for reading. Note: The comparator must be the same that was chosen when
     /// building the table.