[ANSI-Smalltalk] #contents on <collectionStream>

[Bruce Badger]

On 20/10/2008, Paolo Bonzini <bonzini at gnu.org> wrote:
>
>  >> For reading past and future values in WriteStream you could do "x
>  >> setToEnd; contents" but I never found a usage for it.
>  >
>  > There's one above.
>
>
> Interesting.  We need other opinions.

I would expect >>contents to be independent of position.  Where
>>contents could not be reasonably and consistently implemented I
would suggest that an exception be thrown.

So, I think this should be true: ((ReadStream on: 'abc') next; contents) = 'abc'

But >>contents sent to a ReadStream on a socket, and perhaps even a
file, should raise an exception.

If we need to have a number of read and write stream classes to make
behaviour obvious then I think that's better than to cram many subtle
meanings and variations into one protocol.

It would also be good to know what aStream reset; position was.  0 or
1.  I prefer 0 because, not least, it makes more sense when the
contents are empty.

We'll need a Step to express what the ANSI standard says now, and then
we can base other Steps on that to propose changes (if any are
needed).

All the best,
    Bruce
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