3 ms·

This is a similar idea to a rope: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(data_structure) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(data_structure)

• masklinn 10y ago
  That's pretty much what iolists are, except you don't usually read iolists (or modify in ways other than concatenating) so you don't pay for that complexity cost. iolists are also mixed-type so you can have an iolist containing integers, strings and binaries (at the same nesting level or different ones) which means less transcoding pressure.