It is a replacement for stdio that fixes a number of problems
and adds some additional features. I have the library built,
and can probably compile python using it in stdio-compatability
mode ( including sfio/stdio.h defines macro replacement for
stdio functions. ), but there are a lot of other features in
the package ( and since it fixes a number of problems in stdio
that would make these features behave unpredictably when done with
stdio, it extends it safely. ) like peek-ahead, managing a pool
of streams, sfpopen is full duplex, and a streams like ability to
push a filter function into the i/o-stream. ( Sort of like pipes.py )
Using this extra functionality would require another i/o module in
python that implements an interface to those additional functions
that aren't in stdio.
The primary disadvantage to this would be that I don't think sfio
has been ported to DOS, Mac or other non-unix environments.
On the other hand, if it *was* ported, it could give a portable API
to VERY different implementations on those systems, instead of them
trying to do a poor job of semi-posix emulation.
[ I have BUILT the package, but I haven't used it other than in
compatability mode.
If anyone is interested I'll dig out pointers to the sfio package
and paper(s). It's somewhere on netlib@research.att.com ]
- Steve Majewski (804-982-0831) <sdm7g@Virginia.EDU>
- UVA Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics