From: utzoo!decvax!microsof!gordonl Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Title: stdio buffering Article-I.D.: microsof.578 Posted: Sat Jul 31 09:36:21 1982 Received: Sun Aug 1 04:40:20 1982 References: sri-unix.2336 We are aware of the stdio/tty buffering problem, but find the Berkeley solution inadequate. Too many programs, especially screen-oriented ones, expect fragments of output to appear on the screen immediately. Some, for example, use rawio and 'read' for character input; when we move these to our 4.1bsd vax they stop working! Our fix to stdio was designed to guarantee transparency of function while improving performance. Basically, we buffer output and flush it through whenever stdio returns control to the user program. Thus, the output for a 'printf' or 'puts' will go out as one write. On the bad news side, programs written to do 'putc's see no gain with our stdio. However, we felt we could not accept the Berkeley method as it breaks previously working programs. gordon letwin microsoft