Distinguish between spooling and buffering

Spooling refers to the process of temporarily storing data in a buffer or queue before it is sent to an output device. The purpose of spooling is to decouple the speed of the input and output operations, so that a faster device does not have to wait for a slower device. One example of this is print spooling, where a document is sent to a buffer rather than immediately sent to a printer, so that the printer can print other documents while the first one is still in the buffer.

Buffering, on the other hand, refers to the process of temporarily storing data in memory before it is sent to an input or output device. The purpose of buffering is to improve the efficiency of I/O operations by reducing the number of times that the computer has to access the device. One example of this is disk buffering, where data is read from a disk into a buffer in memory, so that the computer can access the data more quickly.

While both spooling and buffering involve temporarily storing data in memory, the main difference between the two is the purpose for which that data is being stored. Spooling is used to decouple the speed of input and output operations, while buffering is used to improve the efficiency of I/O operations.

Additionally, Buffering can also be used in other context as well such as streaming media, network buffer, etc. to hold the information temporarily to deal with variable network bandwidth or for data manipulation prior to processing.

One key difference between the two is that spooling is generally used for input/output operations, whereas buffering can be used in a variety of different contexts such as memory, disk I/O, and network communication. Additionally, Spooling is typically done for an output device such as a printer whereas buffering is typically done for input or output devices. Spooling is useful when multiple jobs are sent to the same device and should be completed one after another, this avoids contention and improve performance. Buffering is useful when the flow of data between two processes or devices is not perfectly matched, and it helps to smooth out the flow of data and prevent data loss or errors.