# IO-stringy

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- INSTALLATION
- VERSION
- TO DO
- CHANGE LOG
- AUTHOR

## NAME

IO-stringy - I/O on in-core objects like strings and arrays

## SYNOPSIS

        IO::
        ::AtomicFile   adpO  Write a file which is updated atomically     ERYQ
        ::Lines        bdpO  I/O handle to read/write to array of lines   ERYQ
        ::Scalar       RdpO  I/O handle to read/write to a string         ERYQ
        ::ScalarArray  RdpO  I/O handle to read/write to array of scalars ERYQ
        ::Wrap         RdpO  Wrap old-style FHs in standard OO interface  ERYQ
        ::WrapTie      adpO  Tie your handles & retain full OO interface  ERYQ

## DESCRIPTION

This toolkit primarily provides modules for performing both traditional and object-oriented i/o) on things other than normal filehandles; in particular, IO::Scalar, IO::ScalarArray, and IO::Lines.

If you have access to tie(), these classes will make use of the IO::WrapTie module to inherit a convenient new_tie() constructor. It also exports a nice wraptie() function.

In the more-traditional IO::Handle front, we have IO::AtomicFile which may be used to painlessly create files which are updated atomically.

And in the "this-may-prove-useful" corner, we have IO::Wrap, whose exported wraphandle() function will clothe anything that's not a blessed object in an IO::Handle-like wrapper... so you can just use OO syntax and stop worrying about whether your function's caller handed you a string, a globref, or a FileHandle.

## INSTALLATION

Most of you already know the drill...

        perl Makefile.PL
        make test
        make install

For everyone else out there... if you've never installed Perl code before, or you're trying to use this in an environment where your sysadmin or ISP won't let you do interesting things, relax: since this module contains no binary extensions, you can cheat. That means copying the directory tree under my "./lib" directory into someplace where your script can "see" it. For example, under Linux:

        cp -r IO-stringy-1.234/lib/* /path/to/my/perl/

Now, in your Perl code, do this:

        use lib "/path/to/my/perl";
        use IO::Scalar;                   ### or whatever

Ok, now you've been told. At this point, anyone who whines about not being given enough information gets an unflattering haiku written about them in the next change log. I'll do it. Don't think I won't.

## VERSION

$Id: Stringy.pm,v 1.220 2001/04/04 05:37:51 eryq Exp $

## TO DO

(2000/08/02) Finalize $/ support
  Graham Barr submitted this patch half a year ago; Like a moron, I lost his message under a ton of others, and only now have the experimental implementation done.

  Will the sudden sensitivity to $/ hose anyone out there? I'm worried, so you have to enable it explicitly.

(2000/09/28) Separate read/write cursors?
  Binkley sent me a very interesting variant of IO::Scalar which maintains two separate cursors on the data, one for reading and one for writing. Quoth he:

          Isn't it the case that real operating system file descriptors
          maintain an independent read and write file position (and
          seek(2) resets them both)?

  He also pointed out some issues with his implementation:

          For example, what does eof or tell return?  The read position or
          the write position?  (I assumed read position was more important).

  Your opinions on this are most welcome. (Me, I'm just squeamish that this will break some code which depends on the existing behavior, and that attempts to maintain backwards-compatibility will slow down the code. But I'll give it a shot.)

## CHANGE LOG

Version 1.220 (2001/04/03)
  Added untested SEEK, TELL, and EOF methods to IO::Scalar and IO::ScalarArray to support corresponding functions for tied filehandles: untested, because I'm still running 5.00556 and Perl is complaining about "tell() on unopened file". Thanks to Graham Barr for the suggestion.

  Removed not-fully-blank lines from modules; these were causing lots of POD-related warnings. Thanks to Nicolas Joly for the suggestion.

Version 1.219 (2001/02/23)
  IO::Scalar objects can now be made sensitive to $/ . Pains were taken to keep the fast code fast while adding this feature. Cheers to Graham Barr for submitting his patch; jeers to me for losing his email for 6 months.

Version 1.218 (2001/02/23)
  IO::Scalar has a new sysseek() method. Thanks again to Richard Jones.

  New "TO DO" section, because people who submit patches/ideas should at least know that they're in the system... and that I won't lose their stuff. Please read it.

  New entries in AUTHOR. Please read those too.

Version 1.216 (2000/09/28)
  IO::Scalar and IO::ScalarArray now inherit from IO::Handle. I thought I'd remembered a problem with this ages ago, related to the fact that these IO:: modules don't have "real" filehandles, but the problem apparently isn't surfacing now. If you suddenly encounter Perl warnings during global destruction (especially if you're using tied filehandles), then please let me know! Thanks to B. K. Oxley (binkley) for this.

  Nasty bug fixed in IO::Scalar::write(). Apparently, the offset and the number-of-bytes arguments were, for all practical purposes, reversed. You were okay if you did all your writing with print(), but boy was this a stupid bug! Thanks to Richard Jones for finding this one. For you, Rich, a double-length haiku:

             Newspaper headline
                typeset by dyslexic man
             loses urgency

             BABY EATS FISH is
                simply not equivalent
             to FISH EATS BABY

  New sysread and syswrite methods for IO::Scalar. Thanks again to Richard Jones for this.

Version 1.215 (2000/09/05)
  Added 'bool' overload to '""' overload, so object always evaluates to true. (Whew. Glad I caught this before it went to CPAN.)

Version 1.214 (2000/09/03)
  Evaluating an IO::Scalar in a string context now yields the underlying string. Thanks to B. K. Oxley (binkley) for this.

Version 1.213 (2000/08/16)
  Minor documentation fixes.

Version 1.212 (2000/06/02)
  Fixed IO::InnerFile incompatibility with Perl5.004. Thanks to many folks for reporting this.

Version 1.210 (2000/04/17)
  Added flush() and other no-op methods. Thanks to Doru Petrescu for suggesting this.

Version 1.209 (2000/03/17)
  Small bug fixes.

Version 1.208 (2000/03/14)
  Incorporated a number of contributed patches and extensions, mostly related to speed hacks, support for "offset", and WRITE/CLOSE methods. Thanks to Richard Jones, Doru Petrescu, and many others.

Version 1.206 (1999/04/18)
  Added creation of ./testout when Makefile.PL is run.

Version 1.205 (1999/01/15)
  Verified for Perl5.005.

Version 1.202 (1998/04/18)
  New IO::WrapTie and IO::AtomicFile added.

Version 1.110
  Added IO::WrapTie.

Version 1.107
  Added IO::Lines, and made some bug fixes to IO::ScalarArray. Also, added getc().

Version 1.105
  No real changes; just upgraded IO::Wrap to have a $VERSION string.

## AUTHOR

Primary Maintainer
  Eryq (eryq@zeegee.com). President, ZeeGee Software Inc (http://www.zeegee.com).

Unofficial Co-Authors
  For all their bug reports and patch submissions, the following are officially recognized:

           Richard Jones
           B. K. Oxley (binkley)
           Doru Petrescu

Enjoy. Yell if it breaks.