Posted by Richard Crowley on 12/03/07 20:33

"Don Pearce" wrote ...
> No it isn't. A file on a disc could be described as imformation 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.

If you want to use the adjective "real-time" data stream, then I
would agree with you. Else, there is no temporal requirement
or implication for a "data stream".

Most modern programming languages ("C" for example)
only treat input/output data as a stream, there is no "block"
notion of data. It doesn't matter whether the data is coming
from a 10-year old disk file or from a real-time ADC. It is
just a data stream to most software. And that is the way all
data is processed, even on 64-bit wide CPUs.

[Back to original message]