Re: pack() and unpack() 64 bit format codes

On 9 Sep 2014, at 19:36, Leigh <leight@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Internals, > > I would like to propose giving pack() and unpack() 64 bit format > codes, mimicking the current behaviour of 32 bit format codes. What would this do on 32-bit platforms? > Pack and unpack are obviously functions inspired by Perl, which has > the 64 bit format codes 'q' and 'Q'. So the first half of my proposal > is to give pack() and unpack() these options. > > q - signed long long (always 64 bit, machine byte order) > Q - unsigned long long (always 64 bit, machine byte order) > > Perl does not have format codes to specify endianness, so the second > half of my proposal is to introduce two more format codes for PHP that > behave differently from Perl. > > J - unsigned long long (always 64 bit, big endian byte order) > P - unsigned long long (always 64 bit, little endian byte order) > > I have chosen these letters _because_ they already exist in Perl, > however their function does not suit PHP. J is for Perl internal > integers, and P is for a pointer to a structure. Both of these are > things that make no sense to support in PHP. Why is there no big/little-endian signed long long? -- Andrea Faulds http://ajf.me/