The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
File streams are used to place information directly into a file. The information can be that which is being acquired--an input file stream--or can be information coming from a program that is running on the computer. The latter is known as an output file steam.
File streams are a ubiquitous feature of programming languages. For example, in Windows 2000, the file stream functions as outlined above, and also functions to divide a file into several sub-files (or streams). In C++, file streams can be used to attach files to incoming or outgoing file streams.
An object of a file stream is information residing in a file (external to the computer or residing in the computer). The user can create a file stream by the invocation of commands. In the Lisp programming language, for example, the "open" and "with-open-file" commands are used. Also, file streams can be a built-in feature of the programming system, via functions such as "load."
A file stream may be created using the command statement that is germane to the particular operating system. Then, a file can be associated with the stream; this is also described as declaring a file stream object.
An important feature of file streams is that they can be used globally. That is to say, a large amount of data can be moved in such a way that it is available for subsequent manipulation. For example, a file can be sent to a recipient, changed, and the altered version sent back to the original source. Such two-way access to information makes long-distance electronic collaboration feasible.
Despite their usefulness to the acquisition of information, file streams have been maliciously utilized. In the year 2000, a virus designed Win2K/Stream, became the first known example of a virus that uses the file stream feature of Windows 2000 to infect personal computers. Upon infection of a file the virus creates a new stream and assigns to the file the name "filename:str." The original file can now only be accessed using the newly-assigned file name, which is hidden from the user. Thus, the user is barred from use of the infected file. Infection of an executable file, responsible for the performance of a program of aspect of a program, can seriously set-back computer operations.