[phobos] UnbufferedFile, or, abstracting the File ranges

[Denis]

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Steve Schveighoffer
<schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I would define only 2 i/o functions:
>
> size_t read(void[] b);
> size_t write(const(void)[] b);
>
> And then the various paraphernalia around it (close, open, etc).
>
> The reason to use void[] is because any array data type can be passed to it
> without casting (imagine you wanted to read an array of ints).
>
> Reading and writing a single byte should be discouraged with unbuffered
> streams.  This is how it is in most I/O libs.  You build your unbuffered I/O
> to abstract the OS functions, then build your buffered I/O and fancy
> functionality on top of it.
>
> -Steve
>

I think it should be byte[], not void[]. First, byte[] aren't scanned
for pointers by GC. Second, it hijacks type safety. I believe you need
an explicit cast, even if you are sure about the type of data in the
file (throw in an Endianness if you are still not convienced).