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Add fixed-width integer peeks for byte readers

Open Beginner friendly
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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
75/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
rust
Domain
compilers

Research direction

The issue points to std/bytes/cursor.wave and std/bytes/read.wave. Start by examining the existing bytes_reader_peek_u8 function and the read helpers for u16, u32, u64 to understand the signatures and error codes. Implement peek helpers that use a snapshot or checked offset reads without mutating the reader's position. Write tests to verify peeks decode correctly without advancing position, and that failures preserve state. Run the regressions at O0/O2 as specified.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

enhancement good first issue needs testing

Motivation

std/bytes/cursor.wave provides bytes_reader_peek_u8, but inspecting a multi-byte header currently requires callers to save and restore cursor state or construct another reader.

Scope

Add big-endian and little-endian peek helpers for u16, u32, and u64, following existing read-helper signatures and error codes. Use a reader snapshot or checked offset reads from std/bytes/read.wave without temporarily mutating the caller's reader.

Keep existing reads and the u8 peek unchanged. Signed peeks and variable-length encodings can be separate additions.

Completion criteria

  • Successful peeks decode the expected value without advancing position.
  • Failures preserve both position and the output value.
  • Cover both byte orders, nonzero positions, exact-fit buffers, EOF, invalid reader state, and null output.
  • Run focused regressions at O0/O2 without allocation or an OS dependency.

Difficulty: easy.

Dominant language
Rust
Stars
53
Forks
16
Avg merge
3h 38m
Merged PRs (30d)
48

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  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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