Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:128707
Precedence: list
MIME-Version: 1.0
References: <CAMU7irLuV_CWR37odtuu0TL7io_bONy+5xebY82YnVb38RtEzg@mail.gmail.com>
 <e019e5c8feccbb4586153d7d93db2aec@bastelstu.be>
In-Reply-To: <e019e5c8feccbb4586153d7d93db2aec@bastelstu.be>
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2025 16:50:14 +0200
Message-ID: <CAMU7irKbh-1ExY0sUsM8m5npKe_bcVYPcr62DG+M7C2vP2eNmw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Add pack()/unpack() support for signed integers
 with specific endianness
To: =?UTF-8?Q?Tim_D=C3=BCsterhus?= <tim@bastelstu.be>
Cc: PHP internals list <internals@lists.php.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
From: alex.daubois+php@gmail.com (Alexandre Daubois)

Hi,

> > 1. Base Letters Already Taken
>
> The point of a modifier is to modify something. That means that there
> needs to be a =E2=80=9Cbase letter=E2=80=9D. The same base letters are al=
so =E2=80=9Ctaken=E2=80=9D in
> Perl and have the same definition.
>
> > 2. Parser Architecture Limitations
>
> That sounds like a simple problem to solve. When reaching one of the
> =E2=80=9Cbase letters=E2=80=9D in question, look at the next character.

Indeed, it is just that I'm not sure that it is worth adding modifiers
support to pack and unpack as with this addition, most (if not all)
cases should be covered then.

> This is simply false. v/n/V/N identically exist in Perl. J is not clear
> to me, and P appears to be different (but I don't do enough Perl to say
> for certain).

Perl and PHP share common letters, you are right. But looking at the
table of each language, there are many differences. However, I may
reword it as I realized that the RFC states that differences appear
with specific endianness letters (and you showed that it's not true).
There are many differences when we're not talking about endian
specific formats actually.

=E2=80=94 Alexandre Daubois