Author: moritz
Date: 2009-07-02 19:42:33 +0200 (Thu, 02 Jul 2009)
New Revision: 27365
Modified:
docs/Perl6/Spec/S32-setting-library/Containers.pod
Log:
[S32/Containers] flesh out Buf semantics
Modified: docs/Perl6/Spec/S32-setting-library/Containers.pod
===================================================================
--- docs/Perl6/Spec/S32-setting-library/Containers.pod 2009-07-02 15:52:05 UTC
(rev 27364)
+++ docs/Perl6/Spec/S32-setting-library/Containers.pod 2009-07-02 17:42:33 UTC
(rev 27365)
@@ -757,14 +757,38 @@
Buf.new(127, :size(16)) # returns a buf16
Buf.new(1024, :size(8)) # dies, because 1024 >= 2**8
+Subtypes with additional constraints like C<utf8> (which only allows valid
+UTF-8 byte sequences) exist and provide similar constructors. See
+L<S02/Built-In Data Types>.
+
=head3 Methods
=item decode
our Str method decode($encoding = $?ENC, $nf = $?NF)
-Decode the C<Buf> into a C<Str>
+Decode the C<Buf> into a C<Str>. For subtypes that know their encoding (like
+C<utf8>, C<utf16>) the C<$encoding> parameter defaults to their intrisic
+encoding instead.
+=head3 C<Buf> Operators
+
+Two C<Buf> objects of the same bit size can be compared with the same
+operators as strings (in particular C<eq>, C<lt>, C<le>, C<gt>, C<ge>,
+C<ne> and C<leg>), but actually compares the stored integers, not
+characters. Concatenating two compatible C<Buf>s produces an object of the
+most specific type possible, for example C<buf8.new() ~ utf8.new()> results in
+a C<buf8> object.
+
+Comparing or concatenating two C<Buf> objects of different bit sizes,
+or a C<Buf> that doesn't know its encoding with a C<Str> throws an exception.
+
+Likewising coercing an encoding-unaware C<Buf> to C<Str> dies.
+
+[Conjecture: The behaviour of encoding-aware C<Buf> objects on string
+operators is intentially not defined yet, because I have no idea what
+implications on speed and usage they might have --moritz].
+
=head2 Pair
class Pair does Associative {...}
