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 1.1 2004/04/09 17:04:45 dasenbro 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.

    (2000/09/28) Separate read/write cursors?
        Binkley sent me a very interesting variant of IO::Scalar which
        maintains two separate cursors on the data, one for reading and one
        for writing. Quoth he:

            Isn't it the case that real operating system file descriptors 
            maintain an independent read and write file position (and 
            seek(2) resets them both)? 

        (My answer: perhaps, but stdio's fseek/ftell manpages seem to imply
        a single file position indicator, and I'm trying to be IO::-ish.)
        Binkley also pointed out some issues with his implementation:

            For example, what does eof or tell return?  The read position or 
            the write position?  (I assumed read position was more important). 

        Your opinions on this are most welcome. (Me, I'm just squeamish that
        this will break some code which depends on the existing behavior,
        and that attempts to maintain backwards-compatibility will slow down
        the code.)

    (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 2.109 (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
        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.

