The advantages of stream output procedures over format‐dominated record transmissions
Gary L. Hunter, Mary Kuriyan, A. Wallis · Software Practice and Experience · 1977
Abstract This paper shows that stream output procedures can produce well‐formatted printing, with the layout of each line being totally under program control to suit the particular data being processed. This capability for completely general and dynamically variable formats is not possessed by the more commonly used unit‐record output facilities. The distinction is illustrated by a simple example, which in terms of stream‐oriented procedures is an almost trivial programming exercise, but where the use of conventional unit‐record facilities leads to a combinatorial explosion. The corresponding input procedures are also discussed.