diff --git a/src/int.rs b/src/int.rs index 03142f3..26d5a9a 100644 --- a/src/int.rs +++ b/src/int.rs @@ -5,6 +5,32 @@ use ops::checked::*; use ops::saturating::Saturating; use {Num, NumCast}; +/// Generic trait for primitive integers. +/// +/// The `PrimInt` trait is an abstraction over the builtin primitive integer types (e.g., `u8`, +/// `u32`, `isize`, `i128`, ...). It inherits the basic numeric traits and extends them with +/// bitwise operators and non-wrapping arithmetic. +/// +/// The trait explicitly inherits `Copy`, `Eq`, `Ord`, and `Sized`. The intention is that all +/// types implementing this trait behave like primitive types that are passed by value by default +/// and behave like builtin integers. Furthermore, the types are expected to expose the integer +/// value in binary representation and support bitwise operators. The standard bitwise operations +/// (e.g., bitwise-and, bitwise-or, right-shift, left-shift) are inherited and the trait extends +/// these with introspective queries (e.g., `PrimInt::count_ones()`, `PrimInt::leading_zeros()`), +/// bitwise combinators (e.g., `PrimInt::rotate_left()`), and endianness converters (e.g., +/// `PrimInt::to_be()`). +/// +/// All `PrimInt` types are expected to be fixed-width binary integers. The width can be queried +/// via `T::zero().count_zeros()`. The trait currently lacks a way to query the width at +/// compile-time. +/// +/// While a default implementation for all builtin primitive integers is provided, the trait is in +/// no way restricted to these. Other integer types that fulfil the requirements are free to +/// implement the trait was well. +/// +/// This trait and many of the method names originate in the unstable `core::num::Int` trait from +/// the rust standard library. The original trait was never stabilized and thus removed from the +/// standard library. pub trait PrimInt: Sized + Copy