io docs

Signed-off-by: Yoshua Wuyts <[email protected]>

Author: yoshuawuyts

src/io/mod.rs

@@ -1,24 +1,74 @@
-//! Basic input and output.
+//! Traits, helpers, and type definitions for core I/O functionality.
+//!
+//! The `async_std::io` module contains a number of common things you'll need
+//! when doing input and output. The most core part of this module is
+//! the [`Read`] and [`Write`] traits, which provide the
+//! most general interface for reading and writing input and output.
 //!
 //! This module is an async version of [`std::io`].
 //!
 //! [`std::io`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/io/index.html
 //!
-//! # Examples
+//! # Read and Write
+//!
+//! Because they are traits, [`Read`] and [`Write`] are implemented by a number
+//! of other types, and you can implement them for your types too. As such,
+//! you'll see a few different types of I/O throughout the documentation in
+//! this module: [`File`]s, [`TcpStream`]s, and sometimes even [`Vec<T>`]s. For
+//! example, [`Read`] adds a [`read`][`Read::read`] method, which we can use on
+//! [`File`]s:
+//!
+//! ```no_run
+//! use async_std::prelude::*;
+//! use async_std::fs::File;
+//!
+//! # fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> { async_std::task::block_on(async {
+//! #
+//! let mut f = File::open("foo.txt").await?;
+//! let mut buffer = [0; 10];
+//!
+//! // read up to 10 bytes
+//! let n = f.read(&mut buffer).await?;
+//!
+//! println!("The bytes: {:?}", &buffer[..n]);
+//! #
+//! # Ok(()) }) }
+//! ```
+//!
+//! [`Read`] and [`Write`] are so important, implementors of the two traits have a
+//! nickname: readers and writers. So you'll sometimes see 'a reader' instead
+//! of 'a type that implements the [`Read`] trait'. Much easier!
+//!
+//! ## Seek and BufRead
 //!
-//! Read a line from the standard input:
+//! Beyond that, there are two important traits that are provided: [`Seek`]
+//! and [`BufRead`]. Both of these build on top of a reader to control
+//! how the reading happens. [`Seek`] lets you control where the next byte is
+//! coming from:
 //!
 //! ```no_run
+//! use async_std::prelude::*;
+//! use async_std::io::SeekFrom;
+//! use async_std::fs::File;
+//!
 //! # fn main() -> std::io::Result<()> { async_std::task::block_on(async {
 //! #
-//! use async_std::io;
+//! let mut f = File::open("foo.txt").await?;
+//! let mut buffer = [0; 10];
+//!
+//! // skip to the last 10 bytes of the file
+//! f.seek(SeekFrom::End(-10)).await?;
 //!
-//! let stdin = io::stdin();
-//! let mut line = String::new();
-//! stdin.read_line(&mut line).await?;
+//! // read up to 10 bytes
+//! let n = f.read(&mut buffer).await?;
+//!
+//! println!("The bytes: {:?}", &buffer[..n]);
 //! #
 //! # Ok(()) }) }
 //! ```
+//!
+//! [`BufRead`] uses an internal buffer to provide a number of other ways to read, but
+//! to show it off, we'll need to talk about buffers in general. Keep reading!
 
 #[doc(inline)]
 pub use std::io::{Error, ErrorKind, IoSlice, IoSliceMut, Result, SeekFrom};