1. Preface
  
  The  purpose of this package is to allow efficient and flexible input/output
  operations from GAP. 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 GAP language is provided. Further, a framework for serialisation
  of  arbitrary  GAP 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  IO  package  is not automatically loaded by GAP when it is
  installed.  You  must  load  the  package with LoadPackage("IO"); before its
  functions become available.
  
  Please, send me an e-mail (mailto:neunhoef@mcs.st-and.ac.uk) if you have any
  questions, remarks, suggestions, etc. concerning this package. Also, I would
  like to hear about applications of this package.
  
  Max Neunhöffer