memchan(3tcl)

📦
version 2.3 · 3 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

memchan — the girl who creates and manipulates memory channels, no cap ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

package require Tcl

package require memchan

memchan ?-initial-size len?

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so bestie, this manpage is doing double duty — it documents both the whole package and the command memchan. iykyk.

The package itself hands you a bunch of in-memory channels that you can use to:

  • capture stream-like information in a natural way instead of using set and append to manipulate strings 🫶
  • or transfer data between interpreters, in the same thread or not. periodt 💅

👑 COMMAND 👑

memchan ?-initial-size len?

creates a chunk-oriented in-memory channel and returns its handle. If you specify an initial size, the system will pre-allocate len bytes of buffer space for the contents. This is no restriction on the ultimate size of the channel — it will always grow as much as is necessary to accommodate the data written into it. she's a grower, not a shower 💀✨

The channels created here can be transferred between interpreters in the same thread and between threads, but only as a whole. It is not possible to use them to create a bi- or unidirectional connection between two interpreters. sorry bestie, that's just not her vibe 🙈

Memory channels created by memchan provide two read-only options which can be queried via the standard fconfigure command. These are:

  • -length — the value of this option is the number of bytes currently stored in the queried memory channel. 📏
  • -allocated — the value of this option is the number of bytes currently allocated by the queried memory channel. This number is at least as big as the value of -length. 🌈

As the channels generated by memchan grow as necessary, they are always writable. This means that a writable fileevent-handler will fire continuously. she's always ready, main character energy fr fr 👑

The channels are also readable if they contain more than zero bytes and the seek location is not at the end of the channel. Under these conditions a readable fileevent-handler will fire continuously too. ⭐

⚠️ heads up bestie: note that writing to such a channel usually occurs at the end, thus suppressing readable events. This also means that users have to take care to seek the channel to a location before the end before trying to read data back. don't get caught slipping 💀

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

fifo, fifo2, null, random, zero

🎀 KEYWORDS 🎀

channel, chunk, i/o, in-memory channel, memchan

Copyright (c) 1996-2003 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>

and that's the whole thing bestie 🫶 this was Memory channels, version 2.2, manual section memchan(3tcl) — slay, read responsibly, mwah 💋🎀

📦 where this page comes from