> On Fri, Mar 10, 2000 at 01:42:01AM -0800, Simon Marlow wrote:
> > [...]
> > > hPutBufBA :: Handle -> ByteArray Int -> Int -> IO ()
>
> > > hPutBuf :: Handle -> Addr -> Int -> IO ()
> > [...]
>
> Why are the output functions of return type IO () and not also
> IO Int (or rather IO [some integral type large enough to
> cover C's size_t])?
> There *is* possibility for partial writes on POSIX at least.
The idea is that the functions never return until the whole buffer is
written. If the reading end (of a socket or pipe) is closed prematurely,
we'll get an IO error.
For reading, we return a partial read for end-of-file. Partial reads due to
blocking are handled internally by the combinators.
Cheers,
Simon
