Polling I/O
Polling I/O is a synchronous programming technique where a process repeatedly checks (or 'polls') the status of an I/O device or resource to determine if data is available or an operation has completed. It involves actively querying in a loop, which can be simple to implement but often inefficient due to CPU cycles wasted on checking when no data is ready. This contrasts with event-driven approaches like interrupts or asynchronous I/O, where the system notifies the process when data is available.
Developers should learn polling I/O for scenarios where simplicity and control are prioritized over efficiency, such as in embedded systems with limited hardware support, real-time applications requiring deterministic timing, or when implementing lightweight protocols in low-resource environments. It's useful when dealing with simple devices that lack interrupt capabilities or in educational contexts to understand basic I/O handling, but it's generally avoided in high-performance systems due to its CPU-intensive nature and potential for latency.