John Goerzen wrote:
> What you have proposed here is exactly what I am proposing and what
> Python does.  It appears we are somehow in complete agreement about what
> should happen.  I guess the disagreement is whether it is like Java.  I
> maintain it is not, since there is a single File object that is used for
> everything -- both files themselves and various converters.

A basic difference between Python and Java, perhaps, is that Java makes 
a strict distinction between bytes and characters.  In Java, characters 
are always Unicode characters.  Since the most basic kind of stream 
(what you're calling a 'file object') can't possibly be a converter, its 
interface can't return characters.  Therefore, in Java, at some point 
you need a different interface, what you could call a 'file object that 
knows about characters', which Java calls Reader.

However, in Caml we can surely do better, as the 'Common IO Structure' 
thread shows; the basic file/channel/stream type can be polymorphic. 
Now if only Nicholas Cannasse, Gerd Stolpmann and Yamagata Yoriyuki can 
only agree on the type parameters... :)

Ben

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