Stringbuffer Class Reference

The class Stringbuffer composes single characters into a longer text that can be processed on block. More...

#include <stringbuffer.h>

Inheritance diagram for Stringbuffer:

Public Member Functions
virtual	~Stringbuffer ()
	Destructor (nothing to do here)

Protected Member Functions
	Stringbuffer ()
	Constructor; Marks the buffer as empty.
void	put (char c)
	Inserts a character into the buffer.
virtual void	flush ()=0
	Flush the buffer contents.

Protected Attributes
char	buffer [80+1]
long unsigned	pos
	current position in the buffer

Detailed Description

The class Stringbuffer composes single characters into a longer text that can be processed on block.

To make Stringbuffer as versatile as possible, the class does make assumptions about neither the underlying hardware, nor the meaning of "processing". When flush() is called (i.e., either on explicit request or once the buffer is full). To be hardware independent, flush() is to be implemented by the derived classes.

Hints for Implementation

Use a buffer of fixed size for caching characters, which should be accessible by derived classes. Keep in mind that the derived implementation of flush() will need to know about numbers of characters in the buffer.

Notes

Reason for the existence of this class is that generating longer texts is often implemented by assembly of small fragments (such as single characters or numbers). However, writing such small fragments directly to (for example) screen is quite inefficient (e.g., due to the use of IO ports, syscalls, or locks) and can be improved drastically by delaying the output step until the assembly is finished (or the buffer runs full).

Member Function Documentation

flush()

virtual void Stringbuffer::flush ( )

protectedpure virtual

Flush the buffer contents.

This method is to be defined in derived classes, as only those know how to print characters. flush() is required to reset the position pos.

Implemented in CopyStream, SerialStream, TextStream, and OutputStream.

put()

void Stringbuffer::put ( char  c )

protected

Inserts a character into the buffer.

Once the buffer is full, a call to flush() will be issued and thereby clearing the buffer.

Parameters

c	Char to be added

Member Data Documentation

buffer

char Stringbuffer::buffer[80+1]

protected

buffer containing characters that will be printed upon flush() put() keeps this buffer always '\0'-terminated

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The documentation for this class was generated from the following files:

• object/stringbuffer.h
• object/stringbuffer.cc