question: public static ExternalSortable [ ] readArrayOfExternalSortable ( InputStream in , ExternalSortable ex ) throws IOException { Vector A = new Vector ( ) ; int i = 0 ; try { do { A . addElement ( ex . read ( in ) ) ; i ++ ; } while ( true ) ; } catch ( IOException e ) { } ExternalSortable [ ] eA = new ExternalSortable [ i ] ; for ( int j = 0 ; j < i ; j ++ ) eA [ j ] = ( ExternalSortable ) A . elementAt ( j ) ; return eA ; }
target:  Reads in as many ExternalSortables as it can and returns an array corresponding to the ExternalSortables.  Input: in should contain some sequence of ExternalSortables, otherwise a RuntimeException is thrown 