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Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8 #39688

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Philipp91 opened this issue Feb 9, 2017 · 2 comments
Closed

Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8 #39688

Philipp91 opened this issue Feb 9, 2017 · 2 comments
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A-docs Area: documentation for any part of the project, including the compiler, standard library, and tools

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@Philipp91
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Philipp91 commented Feb 9, 2017 •
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Previous discussion:
#14131
#17438
Still a minor thing, so probably not worth an RFC.

as_bytes() is a fine name, but the function is not easy to discover. I have video evidence of Rust beginners who know and use from_utf8(), but can't find the inverse, which is as_bytes(). The documentation provides no links between the two.

Possible mitigations (could even apply multiple of these):

  • Offer .as_utf8() or .to_utf8(), and .into_utf8() and mention in the documentation that it's simply an alias.
  • Put "UTF-8" or "utf8" in the documentation of .as_bytes() and friends, so it can at least be found through search engines. Currently, queries for "rust string to utf8" or "rust utf8 bytes from string" only take you to the from_utf8() function, which works the wrong way round.
  • Reference .as_bytes() and .from_utf8() from each other and mention that they are (roughly) inverses (modulo error handling, modulo ownership stuff).

Currently, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27195506/convert-an-ascii-string-literal-to-u8-in-rust#comment42877192_27195762 might be the hint that helps most people discover as_bytes().
@steveklabnik
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steveklabnik commented Mar 2, 2017 •
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Reference .as_bytes() and .from_utf8() from each other and mention that they are (roughly) inverses (modulo error handling, modulo ownership stuff).

This is the way I'd want to go; I'm working with @jdhorwitz on this.

(well, i was, then he left irc. @jdhorowitz happy to work through things here, or just ping me whenever 😄 )

jdhorwitz added a commit to jdhorwitz/rust that referenced this issue Mar 3, 2017
@jdhorwitz
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8…
f7b7c1e 
… r? @steveklabnik
frewsxcv added a commit to frewsxcv/rust that referenced this issue Mar 3, 2017
@frewsxcv
Rollup merge of rust-lang#40226 - jdhorwitz:master, r=steveklabnik
9f9c2eb 
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8

Added in links for the inverse functions so people will know that as_bytes() is the inverse of from_utf8() and vice versa.
?r @steveklabnik
jdhorwitz added a commit to jdhorwitz/rust that referenced this issue Mar 4, 2017
@jdhorwitz
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8…
3cc94c3 
… r? @steveklabnik
bors added a commit that referenced this issue Mar 4, 2017
@bors
Auto merge of #40226 - jdhorwitz:master, r=steveklabnik
18cc9e7 
Issue #39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8

Added in links for the inverse functions so people will know that as_bytes() is the inverse of from_utf8() and vice versa.
?r @steveklabnik
bors added a commit that referenced this issue Mar 5, 2017
@bors
Auto merge of #40226 - jdhorwitz:master, r=steveklabnik
bb5d993 
Issue #39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8

Added in links for the inverse functions so people will know that as_bytes() is the inverse of from_utf8() and vice versa.
?r @steveklabnik
jdhorwitz added a commit to jdhorwitz/rust that referenced this issue Mar 6, 2017
@jdhorwitz
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8…
86bad49 
… r? @steveklabnik
frewsxcv added a commit to frewsxcv/rust that referenced this issue Mar 6, 2017
@frewsxcv
Rollup merge of rust-lang#40226 - jdhorwitz:master, r=frewsxcv
5f3ecd5 
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8

Added in links for the inverse functions so people will know that as_bytes() is the inverse of from_utf8() and vice versa.
?r @steveklabnik
GuillaumeGomez added a commit to GuillaumeGomez/rust that referenced this issue Mar 6, 2017
@GuillaumeGomez
Rollup merge of rust-lang#40226 - jdhorwitz:master, r=frewsxcv
ebef91a 
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8

Added in links for the inverse functions so people will know that as_bytes() is the inverse of from_utf8() and vice versa.
?r @steveklabnik
steveklabnik added a commit to steveklabnik/rust that referenced this issue Mar 7, 2017
@steveklabnik
Rollup merge of rust-lang#40226 - jdhorwitz:master, r=frewsxcv
ddd95bd 
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8

Added in links for the inverse functions so people will know that as_bytes() is the inverse of from_utf8() and vice versa.
?r @steveklabnik
frewsxcv added a commit to frewsxcv/rust that referenced this issue Mar 8, 2017
@frewsxcv
Rollup merge of rust-lang#40226 - jdhorwitz:master, r=frewsxcv
cf806ea 
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8

Added in links for the inverse functions so people will know that as_bytes() is the inverse of from_utf8() and vice versa.
?r @steveklabnik
frewsxcv added a commit to frewsxcv/rust that referenced this issue Mar 8, 2017
@frewsxcv
Rollup merge of rust-lang#40226 - jdhorwitz:master, r=frewsxcv
3052932 
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8

Added in links for the inverse functions so people will know that as_bytes() is the inverse of from_utf8() and vice versa.
?r @steveklabnik
arielb1 pushed a commit to arielb1/rust that referenced this issue Mar 8, 2017
Rollup merge of rust-lang#40226 - jdhorwitz:master, r=frewsxcv
68a5a16 
Issue rust-lang#39688 - Help people find String::as_bytes() for UTF-8

Added in links for the inverse functions so people will know that as_bytes() is the inverse of from_utf8() and vice versa.
?r @steveklabnik
@steveklabnik steveklabnik added A-docs Area: documentation for any part of the project, including the compiler, standard library, and tools and removed A-docs Area: documentation for any part of the project, including the compiler, standard library, and tools labels Mar 10, 2017
@steveklabnik
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#40226 was merged, closing!

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