When a stream is unbuffered, characters are intendedto appear from the source or at the destination as soon as possible.Otherwise characters may be accumulated and transmitted to or fromthe host environment as a block. When a stream is fully buffered,characters are intended to be transmitted to or from the hostenvironment as a block when a buffer is filled. When a stream is linebuffered, characters are intended to be transmitted to or from the hostenvironment as a block when a new-line character is encountered.Furthermore, characters are intended to be transmitted as a block tothe host environment when a buffer is filled, when input is requestedon an unbuffered stream, or when input is requested on a line bufferedstream that requires the transmission of characters from the hostenvironment. |