Doc/lib/libsomeos.tex

   1 \chapter{Optional Operating System Services}
   2 \label{someos}
   3
   4 The modules described in this chapter provide interfaces to operating
   5 system features that are available on selected operating systems only.
   6 The interfaces are generally modelled after the \UNIX{} or \C{}
   7 interfaces but they are available on some other systems as well
   8 (e.g. Windows or NT).  Here's an overview:
   9
  10 \begin{description}
  11
  12 \item[signal]
  13 --- Set handlers for asynchronous events.
  14
  15 \item[socket]
  16 --- Low-level networking interface.
  17
  18 \item[select]
  19 --- Wait for I/O completion on multiple streams.
  20
  21 \item[thread]
  22 --- Create multiple threads of control within one namespace.
  23
  24 \item[Queue]
  25 --- A stynchronized queue class.
  26
  27 \item[anydbm]
  28 --- Generic interface to DBM-style database modules.
  29
  30 \item[whichdb]
  31 --- Guess which DBM-style module created a given database.
  32
  33 \item[zlib]
  34 \item[gzip]
  35 --- Compression and decompression compatible with the
  36 \program{gzip} program (\module{zlib} is the low-level interface,
  37 \module{gzip} the high-level one).
  38
  39 \end{description}