node, buffers and realloc

[Seiji Sam Lee]

Apologize if this is a old-issue but, why Buffer has its size static?

Why don't use realloc to resize its capacity?

I have done a addon of resized buffers and it works perfectly 8-|

grettings.

[Ben Noordhuis]

On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 11:12 PM, Seiji Sam Lee <seiji...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Apologize if this is a old-issue but, why Buffer has its size static?
>
> Why don't use realloc to resize its capacity?

Because bad things would happen if the code below was legal:

var buf = new Buffer(1024);
fs.read(fd, buf, buf.length, cb);
buf.resize(32);

[codepilot Account]

Buffers can in a way be resized, use slice to make smaller, and concat to make bigger. I doubt slice frees anything, but concat does allocate if it needs to.

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[Seiji Sam Lee]

Right! great argument, but ....

I have done a buffer with a hidden realloc, it born with size zero and realloc when it is needed. There aren't a exlicit realloc method. Would be util for the community?

[Seiji Sam Lee]

too much slow!!

[Nathan Rajlich]

My "ref" module has a "reinterpret()"[1] function which takes a Buffer
instance and returns a new Buffer instance that points to the same
memory address, but has an arbitrary "length" that you specify. This
is both dangerous and necessary sometimes when dealing with ffi stuff.

[1]: http://tootallnate.github.com/ref/#exports-reinterpret