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.

    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.

WARNINGS

    Perl's TIEHANDLE spec was incomplete prior to 5.005_57; it was missing

    support for "seek()", "tell()", and "eof()". Attempting to use these

    functions with an IO::Scalar, IO::ScalarArray, IO::Lines, etc. will not

    work prior to 5.005_57. None of the relevant methods will be invoked by

    Perl; and even worse, this kind of bug can lie dormant for a while. If

    you turn warnings on (via $^W or "perl -w"), and you see something like

    this...

        seek() on unopened file

    ...then you are probably trying to use one of these functions on one of

    our IO:: classes with an old Perl. The remedy is to simply use the OO

    version; e.g.:

        $SH->seek(0,0);    ### GOOD: will work on any 5.005

        seek($SH,0,0);     ### WARNING: will only work on 5.005_57 and beyond

INSTALLATION

  Requirements

    As of version 2.x, this toolkit requires Perl 5.005 for the IO::Handle

    subclasses, and 5.005_57 or better is strongly recommended. See

    "WARNINGS" for details.

  Directions

    Most of you already know the drill...

        perl Makefile.PL

        make

        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: README,v 1.2 2005/02/10 21:24:05 dfs 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 in 1.x. It will be on

        by default in 2.x, though only IO::Scalar has been implemented.

    (2001/08/08) Remove IO::WrapTie from new IO:: classes

        It's not needed. Backwards compatibility could be maintained by

        having new_tie() be identical to new(). Heck, I'll bet that

        IO::WrapTie should be reimplemented so the returned object is just

        like an IO::Scalar in its use of globrefs.

CHANGE LOG

    Version 2.111 (2015/04/22)

        Update maintainer's name, which is now Dianne Skoll.

    Version 2.110 (2005/02/10)

        Maintainership taken over by DSKOLL <dfs@roaringpenguin.com>

        Closed the following bugs at

        https://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=IO-stringy:

    *   2208 IO::ScalarArray->getline does not return undef for EOF if

        undef($/)

    *   7132 IO-stringy/Makefile.PL bug - name should be module name

    *   11249 IO::Scalar flush shouldn't return undef

    *   2172 $\ (output record separator) not respected

    *   8605 IO::InnerFile::seek() should return 1 on success

    *   4798 *.html in lib/

    *   4369 Improvement: handling of fixed-size reads in IO::Scalar

        (Actually, bug 4369 was closed in Version 2.109)

    Version 2.109 (2003/12/21)

        IO::Scalar::getline now works with ref to int. *Thanks to Dominique

        Quatravaux for this patch.*

    Version 2.108 (2001/08/20)

        The terms-of-use have been placed in the distribution file

        "COPYING". Also, small documentation tweaks were made.

    Version 2.105 (2001/08/09)

        Added support for various seek() whences to IO::ScalarArray.

        Added support for consulting $/ in IO::Scalar and IO::ScalarArray.

        The old "use_RS()" is not even an option. Unsupported record

        separators will cause a croak().

        Added a lot of regression tests to supoprt the above.

        Better on-line docs (hyperlinks to individual functions).

    Version 2.103 (2001/08/08)

        After sober consideration I have reimplemented IO::Scalar::print()

        so that it once again always seeks to the end of the string.

        Benchmarks show the new implementation to be just as fast as

        Juergen's contributed patch; until someone can convince me

        otherwise, the current, safer implementation stays.

        I thought more about giving IO::Scalar two separate handles, one for

        reading and one for writing, as suggested by Binkley. His points

        about what tell() and eof() return are, I think, show-stoppers for

        this feature. Even the manpages for stdio's fseek() seem to imply a

        *single* file position indicator, not two. So I think I will take

        this off the TO DO list. Remedy: you can always have two handles

        open on the same scalar, one which you only write to, and one which

        you only read from. That should give the same effect.

    Version 2.101 (2001/08/07)

        Alpha release. This is the initial release of the "IO::Scalar and

        friends are now subclasses of IO::Handle". I'm flinging it against

        the wall. Please tell me if the banana sticks. When it does, the

        banana will be called 2.2x.

        First off, *many many thanks to Doug Wilson*, who has provided an

        *invaluable* service by patching IO::Scalar and friends so that they

        (1) inherit from IO::Handle, (2) automatically tie themselves so

        that the "new()" objects can be used in native i/o constructs, and

        (3) doing it so that the whole damn thing passes its regression

        tests. As Doug knows, my globref Kung-Fu was not up to the task; he

        graciously provided the patches. This has earned him a seat at the

        Co-Authors table, and the right to have me address him as *sensei*.

        Performance of IO::Scalar::print() has been improved by as much as

        2x for lots of little prints, with the cost of forcing those who

        print-then-seek-then-print to explicitly seek to end-of-string

        before printing again. *Thanks to Juergen Zeller for this patch.*

        Added the COPYING file, which had been missing from prior versions.

        *Thanks to Albert Chin-A-Young for pointing this out.*

        IO::Scalar consults $/ by default (1.x ignored it by default). Yes,

        I still need to support IO::ScalarArray.

    Version 1.221 (2001/08/07)

        I threatened in "INSTALLATION" to write an unflattering haiku about

        anyone who whined that I gave them insufficient information... but

        it turns out that I left out a crucial direction. D'OH! *Thanks to

        David Beroff for the "patch" and the haiku...*

               Enough info there?

                 Here's unflattering haiku:

               Forgot the line, "make"!  ;-)

    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

        Dianne Skoll (dfs@roaringpenguin.com).

    Original Author

        Eryq (eryq@zeegee.com). President, ZeeGee Software Inc

        (http://www.zeegee.com).

    Co-Authors

        For all their bug reports and patch submissions, the following are

        officially recognized:

             Richard Jones

             B. K. Oxley (binkley)

             Doru Petrescu

             Doug Wilson (for picking up the ball I dropped, and doing tie() right)

    Go to http://www.zeegee.com for the latest downloads and on-line

    documentation for this module.

    Enjoy. Yell if it breaks.