Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!mouse
From: mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer
Subject: Re: get character without waiting
Message-ID: <1991Jun15.205351.4665@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu>
Date: 15 Jun 91 20:53:51 GMT
References: <1991Jun12.001056.24021@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <4669@inews.intel.com>
Organization: McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines
Lines: 19

In article <4669@inews.intel.com>, bhoughto@pima.intel.com (Blair P. Houghton) writes:

> Y'know, I've often wondered what it was that possessed the forgers of
> unix to name that damn function "select(2)" instead of
> "checkiobuffersforremainingcharacters(2)".

For one thing, the latter requires much more typing, and is harder to
spell correctly. :-)

More seriously, select() does more than just check for available
characters; it can also be used (in conjunction with non-blocking I/O)
for programs that can't afford to block in a write(), and also has
timeout facilities that are useful in their own right....

					der Mouse

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