2 IO-stringy - I/O on in-core objects like strings and arrays
6 ::AtomicFile adpO Write a file which is updated atomically ERYQ
7 ::Lines bdpO I/O handle to read/write to array of lines ERYQ
8 ::Scalar RdpO I/O handle to read/write to a string ERYQ
9 ::ScalarArray RdpO I/O handle to read/write to array of scalars ERYQ
10 ::Wrap RdpO Wrap old-style FHs in standard OO interface ERYQ
11 ::WrapTie adpO Tie your handles & retain full OO interface ERYQ
14 This toolkit primarily provides modules for performing both traditional
15 and object-oriented i/o) on things *other* than normal filehandles; in
16 particular, IO::Scalar, IO::ScalarArray, and IO::Lines.
18 In the more-traditional IO::Handle front, we have IO::AtomicFile which
19 may be used to painlessly create files which are updated atomically.
21 And in the "this-may-prove-useful" corner, we have IO::Wrap, whose
22 exported wraphandle() function will clothe anything that's not a blessed
23 object in an IO::Handle-like wrapper... so you can just use OO syntax
24 and stop worrying about whether your function's caller handed you a
25 string, a globref, or a FileHandle.
28 Perl's TIEHANDLE spec was incomplete prior to 5.005_57; it was missing
29 support for "seek()", "tell()", and "eof()". Attempting to use these
30 functions with an IO::Scalar, IO::ScalarArray, IO::Lines, etc. will not
31 work prior to 5.005_57. None of the relevant methods will be invoked by
32 Perl; and even worse, this kind of bug can lie dormant for a while. If
33 you turn warnings on (via $^W or "perl -w"), and you see something like
36 seek() on unopened file
38 ...then you are probably trying to use one of these functions on one of
39 our IO:: classes with an old Perl. The remedy is to simply use the OO
42 $SH->seek(0,0); ### GOOD: will work on any 5.005
43 seek($SH,0,0); ### WARNING: will only work on 5.005_57 and beyond
47 As of version 2.x, this toolkit requires Perl 5.005 for the IO::Handle
48 subclasses, and 5.005_57 or better is strongly recommended. See
49 "WARNINGS" for details.
52 Most of you already know the drill...
59 For everyone else out there... if you've never installed Perl code
60 before, or you're trying to use this in an environment where your
61 sysadmin or ISP won't let you do interesting things, relax: since this
62 module contains no binary extensions, you can cheat. That means copying
63 the directory tree under my "./lib" directory into someplace where your
64 script can "see" it. For example, under Linux:
66 cp -r IO-stringy-1.234/lib/* /path/to/my/perl/
68 Now, in your Perl code, do this:
70 use lib "/path/to/my/perl";
71 use IO::Scalar; ### or whatever
73 Ok, now you've been told. At this point, anyone who whines about not
74 being given enough information gets an unflattering haiku written about
75 them in the next change log. I'll do it. Don't think I won't.
78 $Id: README,v 1.2 2005/02/10 21:24:05 dfs Exp $
81 (2000/08/02) Finalize $/ support
82 Graham Barr submitted this patch half a *year* ago; Like a moron, I
83 lost his message under a ton of others, and only now have the
84 experimental implementation done.
86 Will the sudden sensitivity to $/ hose anyone out there? I'm
87 worried, so you have to enable it explicitly in 1.x. It will be on
88 by default in 2.x, though only IO::Scalar has been implemented.
90 (2001/08/08) Remove IO::WrapTie from new IO:: classes
91 It's not needed. Backwards compatibility could be maintained by
92 having new_tie() be identical to new(). Heck, I'll bet that
93 IO::WrapTie should be reimplemented so the returned object is just
94 like an IO::Scalar in its use of globrefs.
97 Version 2.110 (2005/02/10)
98 Maintainership taken over by DSKOLL <dfs@roaringpenguin.com>
100 Closed the following bugs at
101 https://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=IO-stringy:
103 * 2208 IO::ScalarArray->getline does not return undef for EOF if
106 * 7132 IO-stringy/Makefile.PL bug - name should be module name
108 * 11249 IO::Scalar flush shouldn't return undef
110 * 2172 $\ (output record separator) not respected
112 * 8605 IO::InnerFile::seek() should return 1 on success
114 * 4798 *.html in lib/
116 * 4369 Improvement: handling of fixed-size reads in IO::Scalar
118 (Actually, bug 4369 was closed in Version 2.109)
120 Version 2.109 (2003/12/21)
121 IO::Scalar::getline now works with ref to int. *Thanks to Dominique
122 Quatravaux for this patch.*
124 Version 2.108 (2001/08/20)
125 The terms-of-use have been placed in the distribution file
126 "COPYING". Also, small documentation tweaks were made.
128 Version 2.105 (2001/08/09)
129 Added support for various seek() whences to IO::ScalarArray.
131 Added support for consulting $/ in IO::Scalar and IO::ScalarArray.
132 The old "use_RS()" is not even an option. Unsupported record
133 separators will cause a croak().
135 Added a lot of regression tests to supoprt the above.
137 Better on-line docs (hyperlinks to individual functions).
139 Version 2.103 (2001/08/08)
140 After sober consideration I have reimplemented IO::Scalar::print()
141 so that it once again always seeks to the end of the string.
142 Benchmarks show the new implementation to be just as fast as
143 Juergen's contributed patch; until someone can convince me
144 otherwise, the current, safer implementation stays.
146 I thought more about giving IO::Scalar two separate handles, one for
147 reading and one for writing, as suggested by Binkley. His points
148 about what tell() and eof() return are, I think, show-stoppers for
149 this feature. Even the manpages for stdio's fseek() seem to imply a
150 *single* file position indicator, not two. So I think I will take
151 this off the TO DO list. Remedy: you can always have two handles
152 open on the same scalar, one which you only write to, and one which
153 you only read from. That should give the same effect.
155 Version 2.101 (2001/08/07)
156 Alpha release. This is the initial release of the "IO::Scalar and
157 friends are now subclasses of IO::Handle". I'm flinging it against
158 the wall. Please tell me if the banana sticks. When it does, the
159 banana will be called 2.2x.
161 First off, *many many thanks to Doug Wilson*, who has provided an
162 *invaluable* service by patching IO::Scalar and friends so that they
163 (1) inherit from IO::Handle, (2) automatically tie themselves so
164 that the "new()" objects can be used in native i/o constructs, and
165 (3) doing it so that the whole damn thing passes its regression
166 tests. As Doug knows, my globref Kung-Fu was not up to the task; he
167 graciously provided the patches. This has earned him a seat at the
168 Co-Authors table, and the right to have me address him as *sensei*.
170 Performance of IO::Scalar::print() has been improved by as much as
171 2x for lots of little prints, with the cost of forcing those who
172 print-then-seek-then-print to explicitly seek to end-of-string
173 before printing again. *Thanks to Juergen Zeller for this patch.*
175 Added the COPYING file, which had been missing from prior versions.
176 *Thanks to Albert Chin-A-Young for pointing this out.*
178 IO::Scalar consults $/ by default (1.x ignored it by default). Yes,
179 I still need to support IO::ScalarArray.
181 Version 1.221 (2001/08/07)
182 I threatened in "INSTALLATION" to write an unflattering haiku about
183 anyone who whined that I gave them insufficient information... but
184 it turns out that I left out a crucial direction. D'OH! *Thanks to
185 David Beroff for the "patch" and the haiku...*
188 Here's unflattering haiku:
189 Forgot the line, "make"! ;-)
191 Version 1.220 (2001/04/03)
192 Added untested SEEK, TELL, and EOF methods to IO::Scalar and
193 IO::ScalarArray to support corresponding functions for tied
194 filehandles: untested, because I'm still running 5.00556 and Perl is
195 complaining about "tell() on unopened file". *Thanks to Graham Barr
198 Removed not-fully-blank lines from modules; these were causing lots
199 of POD-related warnings. *Thanks to Nicolas Joly for the
202 Version 1.219 (2001/02/23)
203 IO::Scalar objects can now be made sensitive to $/ . Pains were
204 taken to keep the fast code fast while adding this feature. *Cheers
205 to Graham Barr for submitting his patch; jeers to me for losing his
208 Version 1.218 (2001/02/23)
209 IO::Scalar has a new sysseek() method. *Thanks again to Richard
212 New "TO DO" section, because people who submit patches/ideas should
213 at least know that they're in the system... and that I won't lose
214 their stuff. Please read it.
216 New entries in "AUTHOR". Please read those too.
218 Version 1.216 (2000/09/28)
219 IO::Scalar and IO::ScalarArray now inherit from IO::Handle. I
220 thought I'd remembered a problem with this ages ago, related to the
221 fact that these IO:: modules don't have "real" filehandles, but the
222 problem apparently isn't surfacing now. If you suddenly encounter
223 Perl warnings during global destruction (especially if you're using
224 tied filehandles), then please let me know! *Thanks to B. K. Oxley
227 Nasty bug fixed in IO::Scalar::write(). Apparently, the offset and
228 the number-of-bytes arguments were, for all practical purposes,
229 *reversed.* You were okay if you did all your writing with print(),
230 but boy was *this* a stupid bug! *Thanks to Richard Jones for
231 finding this one. For you, Rich, a double-length haiku:*
234 typeset by dyslexic man
238 simply not equivalent
241 New sysread and syswrite methods for IO::Scalar. *Thanks again to
242 Richard Jones for this.*
244 Version 1.215 (2000/09/05)
245 Added 'bool' overload to '""' overload, so object always evaluates
246 to true. (Whew. Glad I caught this before it went to CPAN.)
248 Version 1.214 (2000/09/03)
249 Evaluating an IO::Scalar in a string context now yields the
250 underlying string. *Thanks to B. K. Oxley (binkley) for this.*
252 Version 1.213 (2000/08/16)
253 Minor documentation fixes.
255 Version 1.212 (2000/06/02)
256 Fixed IO::InnerFile incompatibility with Perl5.004. *Thanks to many
257 folks for reporting this.*
259 Version 1.210 (2000/04/17)
260 Added flush() and other no-op methods. *Thanks to Doru Petrescu for
263 Version 1.209 (2000/03/17)
266 Version 1.208 (2000/03/14)
267 Incorporated a number of contributed patches and extensions, mostly
268 related to speed hacks, support for "offset", and WRITE/CLOSE
269 methods. *Thanks to Richard Jones, Doru Petrescu, and many others.*
271 Version 1.206 (1999/04/18)
272 Added creation of ./testout when Makefile.PL is run.
274 Version 1.205 (1999/01/15)
275 Verified for Perl5.005.
277 Version 1.202 (1998/04/18)
278 New IO::WrapTie and IO::AtomicFile added.
284 Added IO::Lines, and made some bug fixes to IO::ScalarArray. Also,
288 No real changes; just upgraded IO::Wrap to have a $VERSION string.
292 David F. Skoll (dfs@roaringpenguin.com).
295 Eryq (eryq@zeegee.com). President, ZeeGee Software Inc
296 (http://www.zeegee.com).
299 For all their bug reports and patch submissions, the following are
300 officially recognized:
303 B. K. Oxley (binkley)
305 Doug Wilson (for picking up the ball I dropped, and doing tie() right)
307 Go to http://www.zeegee.com for the latest downloads and on-line
308 documentation for this module.
310 Enjoy. Yell if it breaks.