From: Sean O'Dell <sean@...>
Date: 2004-06-20T04:39:54+09:00
Subject: Re: [RCR] IO#readn

On Saturday 19 June 2004 11:58, Reimer Behrends wrote:
> Sean O'Dell (sean@celsoft.com) wrote:
> [...]
>
> >  I agree, a method called to read n bytes should raise an exception when
> > it cannot.
>
> Except that the semantics of read() specify that _at most_ n bytes will
> be read. There are important cases where you want these semantics, such
> as when reading from a non-blocking socket or pipe or when reading a
> file in chunks without wanting to bother to find out what exactly the
> size of the last chunk will be (which can be impossible if the file is
> not seekable).

Yep, you're right...I guess that would apply even in a scripted environment.

	Sean O'Dell