To use this for your own code you will either want to inherit from this module, or instantiate an object for every file or stream you are dealing with.
Most methods start with an underscore, indicating they are private.
In addition this module contains a couple of convenience methods for cross-platform safe tempfile creation and similar tasks. There are some CPAN modules related that may be not be available on all platforms. Send your comments and suggestions preferably to one of the Bioperl mailing lists. Your participation is much appreciated. The rest of the documentation details each of the object methods.