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byte lite: A single-file header-only C++17-like byte type for C++98, C++11 and later

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Example usage

#include "nonstd/byte.hpp"

#include <cassert>

using namespace nonstd;

int main()
{
    byte b1 = to_byte( 0x5a );  // to_byte() is non-standard, needed for pre-C++17
    byte b2 = to_byte( 0xa5 );

    byte r1 = b1 ^ b2; assert( 0xff == to_integer( r1 ) );  // not (yet) standard, needs C++11
    byte r2 = b1 ^ b2; assert( 0xff == to_integer<unsigned int>( r2 ) );
}

Compile and run

prompt> g++ -std=c++11 -Wall -I../include -o 01-basic 01-basic.cpp && 01-basic

Or to run with Buck:

prompt> buck run example:01-basic

In a nutshell

byte lite is a single-file header-only library to provide a C++17-like distinct byte type for use with C++98 and later.

Features and properties of byte lite are are ease of installation (single header), freedom of dependencies other than the standard library.

A limitation of byte lite is that you need to use function to_byte(v) to construct a byte from an integral value v, when C++17's relaxation of the enum value construction rule is not available.

License

byte lite is distributed under the Boost Software License.

Dependencies

byte lite has no other dependencies than the C++ standard library.

Installation

byte lite is a single-file header-only library. Put byte.hpp in the include folder directly into the project source tree or somewhere reachable from your project.

Synopsis

Contents

Types in namespace nonstd

PurposeTypeStdNotes
Distinct byte typeenum class byte>=C++17 
 struct byte< C++17 

Algorithms for byte lite

KindStdFunctionResult
Shift-assign template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte & operator<<=( byte & b, IntegerType shift ) noexceptleft-shifted b
  template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte & operator>>=( byte & b, IntegerType shift ) noexceptright-shifted b
Shift template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte operator<<( byte b, IntegerType shift ) noexceptleft-shifted byte
  template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte operator>>( byte b, IntegerType shift ) noexceptright-shifted byte
Bitwise-op-assign template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte & operator¦=( byte & l, byte r ) noexceptbitwise-or-ed b
  template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte & operator&=( byte & l, byte r ) noexceptbitwise-xor-ed b
  template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte & operator^=( byte & l, byte r ) noexceptbitwise-and-ed b
Bitwise-op template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte & operator¦( byte l, byte r ) noexceptbitwise-or-ed byte
  template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte & operator&( byte l, byte r ) noexceptbitwise-xor-ed byte
  template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte & operator^( byte l, byte r ) noexceptbitwise-and-ed byte
Conversionnon-stdtemplate< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr byte to_byte( IntegerType v )byte with value v
 >=C++11template< class IntegerType = underlying-type ><br>constexpr IntegerType to_integer( byte b )byte's value, note 2, 3
 < C++11template< class IntegerType ><br>constexpr IntegerType to_integer( byte b )byte's value, note 3

Note 1: the algorithms use an extra level of casting to prevent undefined behaviour, as mentioned by Thomas Köppe on mailing list isocpp-lib, subject "std::byte operations are hard to use correctly", on 16 March 2017.

Note 2: default template parameter as suggested by Zhihao Yuan on mailing list isocpp-lib, subject "std::byte to_integer<>", on 10 March 2017.

Note 3: use to_integer() to compute a byte's hash value.

Configuration macros

Standard selection macro

-D<b>byte_CPLUSPLUS</b>=199711L
Define this macro to override the auto-detection of the supported C++ standard, if your compiler does not set the __cpluplus macro correctly.

Select std::byte or nonstd::byte

At default, byte lite uses std::byte if it is available and lets you use it via namespace nonstd. You can however override this default and explicitly request to use std::byte or byte lite's nonstd::byte as nonstd::byte via the following macros.

-D<b>byte_CONFIG_SELECT_BYTE</b>=byte_BYTE_DEFAULT
Define this to byte_BYTE_STD to select std::byte as nonstd::byte. Define this to byte_BYTE_NONSTD to select nonstd::byte as nonstd::byte. Default is undefined, which has the same effect as defining to byte_BYTE_DEFAULT.

Reported to work with

The table below mentions the compiler versions byte lite is reported to work with.

OSCompilerVersions
WindowsClang/LLVM?
 GCC5.2.0
 Visual C++<br>(Visual Studio)6 (6), 8 (2005), 9 (2008), 10 (2010),<br>11 (2012), 12 (2013), 14 (2015), 15 (2017)
GNU/LinuxClang/LLVM3.5 - 6.0
 GCC4.8 - 8
OS XClang/LLVMXcode 6, Xcode 7, Xcode 8, Xcode 9

Building the tests

To build the tests you need:

The lest test framework is included in the test folder.

The following steps assume that the byte lite source code has been cloned into a directory named c:\byte-lite.

  1. Create a directory for the build outputs for a particular architecture. Here we use c:\byte-lite\build-win-x86-vc10.

     cd c:\byte-lite
     md build-win-x86-vc10
     cd build-win-x86-vc10
    
  2. Configure CMake to use the compiler of your choice (run cmake --help for a list).

     cmake -G "Visual Studio 10 2010" -DBYTE_LITE_OPT_BUILD_TESTS=ON ..
    
  3. Build the test suite in the Debug configuration (alternatively use Release).

     cmake --build . --config Debug
    
  4. Run the test suite.

     ctest -V -C Debug
    

All tests should pass, indicating your platform is supported and you are ready to use byte lite.

Other implementations of byte

Notes and References

[1] CppReference. byte.

[2] ISO/IEC WG21. N4659, section 21.2.1, Header <cstddef> synopsis. March 2017.

[3] Neil MacIntosh. P0298: A byte type definition (Revision 3). March 2017.

Appendix

A.1 Compile-time information

The version of byte lite is available via tag [.version]. The following tags are available for information on the compiler and on the C++ standard library used: [.compiler], [.stdc++], [.stdlanguage] and [.stdlibrary].

A.2 Byte lite test specification

byte: Allows to construct from integral via static cast (C++17)
byte: Allows to construct from integral via byte() (C++17)
byte: Allows to construct from integral via to_byte()
byte: Allows to convert to integral via to_integer()
byte: Allows to convert to integral via to_integer(), using default type
byte: Allows comparison operations
byte: Allows bitwise or operation
byte: Allows bitwise and operation
byte: Allows bitwise x-or operation
byte: Allows bitwise or assignment
byte: Allows bitwise and assignment
byte: Allows bitwise x-or assignment
byte: Allows shift-left operation
byte: Allows shift-right operation
byte: Allows shift-left assignment
byte: Allows shift-right assignment
byte: Allows strict aliasing
byte: Provides constexpr non-assignment operations (C++11)
byte: Provides constexpr assignment operations (C++14)