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Standard behavior

open
Opens the resource for usage within the system.
close
Closes the resource, releasing related administrative data; this happens automatically during garbage collection, but it is poor practice to rely upon this.
enable
Creates the external resource represented (used by open).
isOpen
answers whether the resource is open or closed.
isActive
answers whether the resource is active.
restart
restarts the resource if it's already active.
flush
flushes any unwritten elements.
commit
commits all pending write-out information to the resource. Commit performs a flush but also ensures that the data is actually sent to the peer.
read:startingAt:into:
calls read:from:startingAt:into: with the resource's handle.
write:startingAt:from:
calls write:to:startingAt:from: with the resource's handle.
interactor
returns a ReadWriteStream for accessing the resource. Unlike the stream that iterator returns, interactor is expected to return a coupled pair of a ReadStream and WriteStream over the same resource, synchronized to preserve the resource's behavior.
bufferSize
answers a sensible buffer size for interaction, possibly dynamically determined.
defaultBufferSize
answers a default sensible buffer size for interaction.
locator
answers a suitable structured object for dealing with that resource's identity/location.
sessionDo:
executes a code block with the resource as its argument, opening and closing the resource transparently to the block, even for abnormal terminations.


next up previous contents
Next: Consoles Up: External Resources Previous: Primitives   Contents
Brian Rice 2004-08-24