Re: Need help with serialization/deserialization interface.

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On 21 Jan 2007, at 22:28, Tima wrote:

> Most of the time JSON will be read from stream socket, sometimes  
> from file,
> therefore I was seeking for some universal object that provides per- 
> character read
> access without requiring any knowledge of the media.
>
> In C++ there are input and output streams (<iostream>) that are  
> widely used for
> I/O when a programmer wants to detach the API from a particular media.
>
> I was reading about NSStream and its subclasses and got confused. I  
> realized I can get
> them for socket, file or memory buffer, but I did not realize how  
> to use them for
> per-character input or output.

NSStream is probably what you want to use, but it provides per-byte I/ 
O. not per-character I/O.
There is no API for per-character I/O, but you could subclass  
NSStream to add that if you really want it.

> What is the recommended way to do buffered I/O in NextStep?

You can use NSStream or NSFileHandle.  Both are pretty low-level in  
their own way, so quite likely you would want to add your own higher- 
level control.
NSFileHandle does I/O in large chunks ... which might be what suits  
you.  NSStream can be used for buffered I/O by chaining together a  
memory stream and a stream that writes to a device directly.