buffering

I want to read a single character at-a-time from the command line in PHP, however it seems as though there is some kind of input buffering from somewhere preventing this. Consider this code: #!/usr/bin/php <?php echo "input# "; while ($c = fread(STDIN, 1)) { echo "Read from STDIN: " . $c . "\ninput# "; } ?> Typing in "foo" as the input (and pressing enter), the output I am getting is: input# foo Read from STDIN: f input# Read from STDIN: o input# Read from STDIN: o input# Read from STDIN: input# The output I am expecting is: input# f input# Read from STDIN: f input# o input# Read from STDIN: o

I need to find a point that is a visual center of an irregularly shaped polygon. By visual center, I mean a point that appears to be in the center of a large area of the polygon visually. The application is to put a label inside the polygon. Here is a solution that uses inside buffering: https://web.archive.org/web/20150708063910/http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc01/professional/papers/pap388/p388.htm If this is to be used, what is an effective and fast way to find the buffer? If any other way is to be used, which is that way? A good example of really tough polygons is a giant

I learned that by default I/O in programs is buffered, i.e they are served from a temporary storage to the requesting program. I understand that buffering improves IO performance (maybe by reducing system calls). I have seen examples of disabling buffering, like setvbuf in C. What is the difference between the two modes and when should one be used over the other? You want unbuffered output whenever you want to ensure that the output has been written before continuing. One example is standard error under a C runtime library - this is usually unbuffered by default. Since errors are (hopefully)