| But Haskell *really* needs some standard way of reading values in the
| native format on a platform:
What about this specification?
hReadByteArray :: Handle -> MutableByteArray a -> Int -> IO Int
-- Read the specified number of *bytes* into the byte array.
-- Return the number of bytes actually read.
-- By treating the result as a MutableByteArray Float (say), you
-- get binary I/O
hWriteByteArray :: Handle -> MutableByteArray a -> Int -> IO ()
-- Similarly for write (but no Int returned)
-- The 'mutable' part isn't necessary for the write, but a client
-- will typically write an Int (say) into it just before calling.
Both may block.
Would that do what you want? If so we can add it to IOExts.
Simon
