RFR: 8170769 Provide a simple hexdump facility for binary data

[Roger Riggs]

Ho Vincent,

On 12/11/2018 11:34 AM, Vincent Ryan wrote:
> Responses in-line.
>
>>
>>> Its really nice/necessary that examples can be copy/pasted and compile.
>>>>
>>>>  - dumpAsStream(ByteBuffer, from, to, chunk, Formatter) may be 
>>>> confusing because it
>>>>    is using the relative methods of ByteBuffer, but the from and to 
>>>> offsets are within
>>>>    the position .. limit buffer.  That should be explicit.
>>>>    (Or consider switching to the absolute accesses in the 
>>>> ByteBuffer and not affect the position)
>>>
>>> Is the additional javadoc line added earlier sufficient?
>> I would bear some reinforcing that the entire remainder of the buffer 
>> is read
>> and the from and to are indexes within that remainder.
>> And I'm not sure that's the desirable semantics.
>>
>> It would make more sense if the from bytes from the buffer are skipped
>> and only the (to - from) bytes are dumped.  That leaves the ByteBuffer
>> reading only the requested bytes.  A natural usage such as:
>>  dumpAsStream​(ByteBuffer buffer, 0, 256, 16, formatter)
>> would dump the next 256bytes of the ByteBuffer and position would be
>> moved by 256.
>
> [As suggested by Alan]
> How about dropping the fromIndex and toIndex parameters and requiring 
> the caller
> to provide a suitably sized buffer?
>
> public static Stream<String> dumpAsStream(ByteBuffer 
> buffer, int chunkSize, Formatter formatter) {
>
I'd go the other direction and make dump use absolute offset and limit.
The current values for position and limit are readily available from the 
buffer.

If the dumping code is being added to perform some diagnostics then it 
would not
modify the position and not disturb the existing code that is using the 
buffer.

Absolute is simpler to explain and implement and has fewer side effects.

>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> - dump(byte[], OutputStream) - I don't think the example is 
>>>> correct, there is no reference
>>>>   to a stream, only the PrintStream::println method, which is not 
>>>> static.
>>>
>>> The code is just illustrative. Real values would have to be supplied 
>>> for the input bytes and the
>>> chosen print method on the output stream. Typically, that print 
>>> method will be System.out::println
>> Examples that don't compile are really confusing and annoying.
>
> Updated the ‘as if’ code to:
>
>      *     byte[] bytes = ...
>      *     PrintStream out = ...
>      *     HexFormat.dumpAsStream(bytes, 16,
>      *         (offset, chunk, from, to) ->
>      *             String.format("%08x  %s  |%s|",
>      *                 offset,
>      *                 HexFormat.toFormattedString(chunk, from, to),
>      *                 HexFormat.toPrintableString(chunk, from, to)))
>      *         .forEachOrdered(out::println);
>
>
Looks fine, thanks