Input, Output, and Serialization

Summary

In this chapter, you explored a major component of software development: I/O. You started by looking at how the .NET Framework class library provides an object-style approach to the Windows file system, covering files and directories. You then moved on to look at how to open files for I/O manipulation. Next, you learned how to perform many different methods of reading, writing, and seeking to not only files, but also memory streams. You finished by looking at a specialized I/O system known as serialization.

Though none of the concepts in this chapter should be new to anyone who has worked with file I/O before, how it is done with the .NET Framework class library is new. And, as you should suspect, I/O manipulation can be accomplished in many different ways.

In the next chapter, you will move away from the humdrum of the console and start playing with one of Windows’s claims to fame: the graphical user interface (GUI).