 the port's input buffers if available,
          instead from the underlying file descriptor.

        * return `#f' if end-of-file is encountered before reading any
          characters, otherwise return the number of characters read.

        * return 0 if the port is in non-blocking mode and no characters
          are immediately available.

        * return 0 if the request is for 0 bytes, with no end-of-file
          check.

