bufsize

[David Kastrup]

   From: Bernd Raichle <raichle@Informatik.Uni-Stuttgart.DE>
   Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 12:31:39 +0200 (MET DST)

   On , 30 April 1999 12:06:27 +0200,
   Fabrice POPINEAU <popineau@ese-metz.fr> writes:
    > Sebastian Rahtz <sebastian.rahtz@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk> writes:
    > > Fabrice POPINEAU writes:
    > >  > - buf_size in texmf.cnf is set to 50000, but when overflowing is
    > >  > reported to be 30000 ? Normal because sup_buf_size is 30000 in tex.ch .
    > > I think I reported something similar a month or two ago. the existence
    > > of those maximums on tex.ch is not very well documented or
    > > understood. we need the list of maximum values in texmf.cnf for all to 
    > > see.
    > 
    > Do we need a maximum ?

   TeX is reading text input files line by line---everytime TeX reads a
   _complete_ line, i.e., characters until the operating system dependent
   end of line is reached.  Even if we remove the need to allocate an
   input buffer of size buf_size, there will be users who want to read a
   file with lines of x MB, x GB, x TB, ...  

Sure, but why is this a reason to ignore the specified buf_size in
texmf.cnf if it happens to be greater than some arbitrary number?

Actually, a TeX not needing to preallocate entire lines would be
conceivable (some settings like that of \endlinechar would need to be
recorded at the start of the line, but the rest of the line could
really be read in while it is needed).

David Kastrup                                     Phone: +49-234-700-5570
Email: dak@neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de       Fax: +49-234-709-4209
Institut für Neuroinformatik, Universitätsstr. 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany