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Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2025 12:20:58 +0100
Message-ID: <CAMU7irJbeOGVQU6zBuUUDUP2AEDg94P9xati_23psskCY+UMUw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: [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>
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From: alex.daubois+php@gmail.com (Alexandre Daubois)

Hi Tim,

Le dim. 23 nov. 2025 =C3=A0 15:45, Tim D=C3=BCsterhus <tim@bastelstu.be> a =
=C3=A9crit :
> > Initially, endianness modifiers will only be supported for signed integ=
er format codes (s, l, q) since unsigned integers already have dedicated en=
dian-specific letters.
>
> While there are already dedicated alternatives, I feel that restricting
> the new modifiers to the lowercase versions would be unnecessarily
> restrictive. Since the RFC argues that:
>
> > 2. Intuitive semantics: The < and > symbols visually suggest byte order=
 direction
>
> which I agree with, the same argument applies to the uppercase QLS
> versions. As a developer I would rather remember l> as "signed long
> big-endian" and L> as "unsigned long big-endian" rather than N as
> "4-byte network-byte order".
>
> Since there is no inherent limitation or ambiguity with supporting
> modifiers on QLS, I would suggest just allowing it. In fact I think my
> PoC patch already supported them.

I agree. I just updated the text and tables to reflect the addition of
big and little endian unsigned integers throughout the document.

> There's also a formatting issue of the =E2=80=9CRationale=E2=80=9D in the=
 =E2=80=9CProposed
> Solution=E2=80=9D section.

The text has been cleaned and simplified. Thanks!

=E2=80=94 Alexandre Daubois