我理解流是字节序列的表示。每个流都提供了将字节读写到其给定的后备存储的方法。但溪流的意义何在?为什么后台存储本身不是我们交互的对象?

不知什么原因,我就是不喜欢这个概念。我读了很多文章,但我觉得我需要一个类比。


当前回答

之所以选择“流”这个词,是因为它(在现实生活中)与我们使用它时想要传达的意思非常相似。

Start thinking about the analogy to a water stream. You receive a continuous flow of data, just like water continuously flows in a river. You don't necessarily know where the data is coming from, and most often you don't need to; be it from a file, a socket, or any other source, it doesn't (shouldn't) really matter. This is very similar to receiving a stream of water, whereby you don't need to know where it is coming from; be it from a lake, a fountain, or any other source, it doesn't (shouldn't) really matter. source

其他回答

我认为您需要考虑后备存储本身通常只是另一种抽象。内存流很容易理解,但是文件完全不同,这取决于您使用的文件系统,而不考虑您使用的是什么硬盘驱动器。事实上,并不是所有的流都位于备份存储的顶部:网络流基本上就是流。

流的意义在于我们将注意力限制在重要的事情上。通过标准抽象,我们可以执行公共操作。例如,即使您今天不想在文件或HTTP响应中搜索url,也不意味着您明天就不想这样做了。

Streams were originally conceived when memory was tiny compared to storage. Just reading a C file could be a significant load. Minimizing the memory footprint was extremely important. Hence, an abstraction in which very little needed to be loaded was very useful. Today, it is equally useful when performing network communication and, it turns out, rarely that restrictive when we deal with files. The ability to transparently add things like buffering in a general fashion makes it even more useful.

流是一种抽象,它提供了一组用于与数据交互的标准方法和属性。通过从实际的存储介质中抽象出来,可以编写代码而不完全依赖于该介质是什么,甚至不依赖于该介质的实现。

一个很好的类比可能是考虑一个袋子。你不在乎一个包是什么做的,也不在乎当你把东西放进去的时候它能做什么,只要这个包能发挥它的功能,你就能把东西拿出来。流为存储介质定义了袋的概念,就像袋的概念为袋的不同实例(如垃圾袋、手提包、背包等)定义的那样——交互规则。

之所以选择“流”这个词,是因为它(在现实生活中)与我们使用它时想要传达的意思非常相似。

Start thinking about the analogy to a water stream. You receive a continuous flow of data, just like water continuously flows in a river. You don't necessarily know where the data is coming from, and most often you don't need to; be it from a file, a socket, or any other source, it doesn't (shouldn't) really matter. This is very similar to receiving a stream of water, whereby you don't need to know where it is coming from; be it from a lake, a fountain, or any other source, it doesn't (shouldn't) really matter. source

流的目的是在您和后台存储之间提供一个抽象层。因此,使用流的给定代码块不需要关心后台存储是磁盘文件、内存等等…

这只是一个概念,另一个层次的抽象,让你的生活更容易。它们都有共同的接口,这意味着你可以以类似管道的方式组合它们。例如,编码到base64,然后压缩,然后将其写入磁盘,所有这些都在一行中!