Posted by Don Pearce on 11/30/07 22:51

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:37:56 -0800, "Richard Crowley"
<rcrowley@xp7rt.net> wrote:

>"Don Pearce" wrote...
>> "Richard Crowley" wrote:
>>>I take it that you aren't a programmer, either.
>>
>> I have been. So tell me, what do you think is the difference
>> between data and data stream? In other words, what does
>> the word stream mean in this context?
>
>A data stream is information that is linked together and
>must be taken in sequence to be understood. (vs. random-
>access data).
>
>Take a book for example. The *story* is a data-stream
>because it must be taken in sequence. But the words
>and paragraphs and chapters can be taken as random-
>access blocks of data, but if you take it that way you
>lose the sense of the story / data-stream. Novels are
>generally treated as a data-stream. OTOH dictionaries
>are generally treated as random-access data.
>
>In the context of the function of a codec, the sense is
>the same. No codec (MP3 or ZIP, etc.) can properly
>decode the data unles it is taken in sequence (i.e. a
>"data stream"). But there is no implication of WHEN
>this must happen. It doesn't matter whether you
>decode MP3 in real-time (as you listen) or whether
>you batch decode it to a PCM sequence and them
>just feed those bytes into an ADC after the fact.

No it isn't. A file on a disc could be described as imfor,ation that
must be taken in sequence, but it is still a file. A data stream is an
inexorable flow of data which must be dealt with as it comes.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

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