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authorGuido van Rossum <guido@python.org>1995-08-10 14:22:39 (GMT)
committerGuido van Rossum <guido@python.org>1995-08-10 14:22:39 (GMT)
commit0dbd1fd46ecd73ee68d52b62381c6e37e48d3b20 (patch)
treed583595ccf3c48c5f163b1ca1ed0c7642e2cef0f /Doc/lib
parent3e43d8382c48d8c8d2e965b090cf48c6b8d3fdc4 (diff)
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correct description of integer division; describe optional read arg
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/lib')
-rw-r--r--Doc/lib/libtypes.tex19
1 files changed, 11 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libtypes.tex b/Doc/lib/libtypes.tex
index a3bc0b2..379d3fe 100644
--- a/Doc/lib/libtypes.tex
+++ b/Doc/lib/libtypes.tex
@@ -215,9 +215,9 @@ Notes:
\begin{description}
\item[(1)]
-For (plain or long) integer division, the result is an integer; it
-always truncates towards zero.
-% XXXJH integer division is better defined nowadays
+For (plain or long) integer division, the result is an integer.
+The result is always rounded towards minus infinity: 1/2 is 0,
+(-1)/2 is -1, 1/(-2) is -1, and (-1)/(-2) is 0.
\indexii{integer}{division}
\indexiii{long}{integer}{division}
@@ -666,17 +666,17 @@ Files have the following methods:
\code{0}.
\end{funcdesc}
-\begin{funcdesc}{read}{size}
+\begin{funcdesc}{read}{\optional{size}}
Read at most \var{size} bytes from the file (less if the read hits
\EOF{} or no more data is immediately available on a pipe, tty or
- similar device). If the \var{size} argument is omitted, read all
- data until \EOF{} is reached. The bytes are returned as a string
+ similar device). If the \var{size} argument is negative or omitted,
+ read all data until \EOF{} is reached. The bytes are returned as a string
object. An empty string is returned when \EOF{} is encountered
immediately. (For certain files, like ttys, it makes sense to
continue reading after an \EOF{} is hit.)
\end{funcdesc}
-\begin{funcdesc}{readline}{}
+\begin{funcdesc}{readline}optional{size}}
Read one entire line from the file. A trailing newline character is
kept in the string%
\footnote{The advantage of leaving the newline on is that an empty string
@@ -686,7 +686,10 @@ Files have the following methods:
you can tell whether the last line of a file ended in a newline
or not (yes this happens!).}
(but may be absent when a file ends with an
- incomplete line). An empty string is returned when \EOF{} is hit
+ incomplete line). If thevar{size} argument is present and
+ non-negative, it is a maximum byte count (including the trailing
+ newline) and an incomplete line may be returned.
+ An empty string is returned when \EOF{} is hit
immediately. Note: unlike \code{stdio}'s \code{fgets()}, the returned
string contains null characters (\code{'\e 0'}) if they occurred in the
input.