Need help with serialization/deserialization interface.

[Tima]

Hi list,

I'm going to write a serializer/decerialiser pair of procedures for a 
data
description format (more specifically, for JSON, see http://json.org 
and http://json-rpc.org ).

BJSONAdditions 
(http://blakeseely.com/blog/archives/2006/03/29/bsjsonadditions-12/,
the lates version is actually 1.3 at 
http://blakeseely.com/source/BJSONAdditions.zip )
suggests


@interface NSDictionary (BSJSONAdditions)

+ (NSDictionary *)dictionaryWithJSONString:(NSString *)jsonString;
- (NSString *)jsonStringValue;

@end

One thing I do not understand is: is it the best to read from NSString?

Most of the time JSON will be read from stream socket, sometimes from 
file,
therefore I was seeking for some universal object that provides 
per-character read
access without requiring any knowledge of the media.

In C++ there are input and output streams (<iostream>) that are widely 
used for
I/O when a programmer wants to detach the API from a particular media.

I was reading about NSStream and its subclasses and got confused. I 
realized I can get
them for socket, file or memory buffer, but I did not realize how to 
use them for
per-character input or output.

What is the recommended way to do buffered I/O in NextStep?

Thanks a lot,
Tima