  
  [1m[4m[31m1. Preface[0m
  
  The  purpose of this package is to allow efficient and flexible input/output
  operations from [1mGAP[0m. This is achieved by providing bindings to the low-level
  I/O functions in the C-library. On top of this an implementation of buffered
  I/O  in the [1mGAP[0m language is provided. Further, a framework for serialisation
  of  arbitrary  [1mGAP[0m objects is implemented. Finally, an implementation of the
  client side of the HTTP protocol is included in the package.
  
  This package allows to use file based I/O, access to links and file systems,
  pipes, sockets, and the UDP and TCP/IP protocols.
  
  By  default  the  [1mIO[0m  package  is not automatically loaded by [1mGAP[0m when it is
  installed.  You  must  load  the  package with [22m[32mLoadPackage("IO");[0m before its
  functions become available.
  
  Please,  send  me  an e-mail ([34mmailto:max.neunhoeffer@math.rwth-aachen.de[0m) if
  you  have any questions, remarks, suggestions, etc. concerning this package.
  Also, I would like to hear about applications of this package.
  
  Max Neunhöffer
  
