From: Tanaka Akira <akr@...17n.org>
Date: 2005-05-11T00:20:26+09:00
Subject: Re: When to use sysread

In article <20050510142749.GA53646@freeze.org>,
  Jim Freeze <jim@freeze.org> writes:

> Uhm, what is the purpose of #sysread.
> In other words, when would I use it instead of just #read.

When you know neither a length nor a terminator of data available.

For example, telnet.rb uses IO#sysread.  It reads from network until a
shell's prompt.  But the length until the prompt is not known in
general.  Also the prompt varies.  If IO#read is used and longer
length is specified, it blocks forever.
-- 
Tanaka Akira