------------------------->  GNU Sather - sourcefile  <-------------------------
-- Copyright (C) 1995 by International Computer Science Institute            --
-- This file is part of the GNU Sather library. It is free software; you may --
-- redistribute  and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General --
-- Public  License (LGPL)  as published  by the  Free  Software  Foundation; --
-- either version 2 of the license, or (at your option) any later version.   --
-- This  library  is distributed  in the  hope that it will  be  useful, but --
-- WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY --
-- or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See Doc/LGPL for more details.       --
-- The license text is also available from:  Free Software Foundation, Inc., --
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-------------->  Please email comments to <bug-sather@gnu.org>  <--------------

-- Author: Benedict A. Gomes <gomes@samosa.ICSI.Berkeley.EDU>

abstract class $OSTREAM is
   -- A general output stream. A first stab at streams.  This
   -- abstraction is already useful for routines that might use a file
   -- or a string ( a common choice is whether a routine will write to
   -- stdout or to a string which may then be printed to a file).
   -- 
   -- Usage:
   --    write_to_stream(o: $OUTSTREAM) is
   --        o + "this is a test";
   --    end;
   --    Which can be invoked using:
   --     write_to_stream(FILE::stdout);
   --       or 
   --     s: STR_STREAM := #;
   --     write_to_stream(s);
   --     write_to_stream(s);
   --     s.str then would have two copies of "this is a test" in it.

   
   plus(s: $STR);
   -- Append the string "s" to the stream
   
   plus(s: $STR): SAME;
   -- Append the string "s" to the stream and return self

end; -- class $OUTSTREAM
