Hi Daniel, On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 10:07 AM, Daniel Díaz <danield...@asofilak.es> wrote: > Hi, cafe, > > I just feel curiosity. In the bytestring package, Data.ByteString module, > functions like length, index, and others with Int in its type signature, > have Int64 in the analogous Data.ByteString.Lazy version. What is the > reason?
A strict ByteString is one contiguous chunk of memory so it cannot be longer than an Int (if we assume and Int is either 32 or 64 bits for a second). However, a lazily generated stream can be much bigger than main memory, so it makes sense to use a bigger type to refer to e.g. it length. Now, you might say that lazy ByteString should use Integer instead of Int64. However, Int64 performs much better so I think the loss of generality is worth it. Johan _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
