python: ascii read

[Brian van den Broek]

Heiko Wundram said unto the world upon 2004-09-16 12:56:
> Am Donnerstag, 16. September 2004 17:56 schrieb Brian van den Broek:
> 
>>But I don't really feel I've a handle on the significance of saying it
>>maps the file into memory versus reading the file. The naive thought is
>>that since the data gets into memory, the file must be read. But this
>>makes me sure I'm missing a distinction in the terminology. Explanations
>>and pointers for what to read gratefully received.
> 
> 
> read()ing a file into memory does what it says; it reads the binary data from 
> the disk all at once, and allocates main memory (as needed) to fit all the 
> data there. Memory mapping a file (or device or whatever) means that the 
> virtual memory architecture is involved. What happens here:
> 

<Much helpful detail SNIPed>


> 
> HTH!
> 
> Heiko.

Thanks a lot for the detailed account, Heiko.

Best,

Brian vdB