Concepts

The libbinio stream classes can be divided into two layers of functionality:

1. The conversion layer provides methods for transparently converting the data, that has just been read from or is to be written to a stream, between the current and the alien architecture. The binistream, binostream and binstream classes belong to this layer.
2. The stream layer faciliates functionality on the stream level. It provides methods for byte-by-byte access to the data, seeking, opening and closing a stream and anything else related to the maintenance of a stream. The binfstream, binwstream and binsstream related classes belong to this layer.

Additionally, there are some administrative and auxiliary classes provided, which do not belong to any of the above defined layers. The binio base class belongs here, for example.