[codec] Alterations to Binary.java and its unit test for 1.3 release

• Key: CODEC-21
• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Resolution: Fixed
• Priority: Major
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Alex Karasulu
• Affects Version/s: 1.2
• Fix Version/s: 1.3

Environment

Operating System: other
Platform: All

Description

• BIT_n constants made private
• Used BITS in for loop to make code shorter and cleaner
• Added two new methods for encoding and decoding to BitSet
  curtesy of Vish Krishnan - sorry Vish I had to change some
  things on your contribs.
• Made 100% test coverage as validated by clover

Comments

[Alex Karasulu]

Created an attachment (id=10882)
jar compressed file containing BinaryAndTest.patch

[Gary Gregory]

Patch partially applied and modified:

(1) The bitset methods and tests do not compile on <1.4. I've fixed that in
another patch attached to this ticket if/when we want to use it here.

(2) I did not include the bit set methods in this pass as they seem to be out of
context for this class but would like to discuss this. The Binary codec as is
today converts between byte arrays and "0/1" strings. If we want to convert to
and from BitSet objects, maybe this is another codec or a BitSetUtils class in
[lang]?

(3) All Java strings are Unicode, so the use of "ASCII" in comments and method
names is misleading IMO, especially when what is meant are "Strings of 0s and
1s" so I'd like to not use "Ascii" in method names. I'll try to address that on
commons-dev.

(4) I've also renamed the instance method "byte[] decode(Object)" to
"toByteArray" because the name "decode" was being overloaded but not overriden,
which to makes the class more confusing to understand IMHO considering the codec
interfaces Decoder, StringDecoder, and BinaryDecoder. I found this tricky since
Binary is NOT a StringDecoder but a BinaryDecoder. Using "decode" the method
look like a framework implementation method when it is not. This is all I
suppose a reflection on how truly useful these interfaces are in the first
place, a different topic I know.

[Gary Gregory]

Created an attachment (id=10885)
Patch to Binary v.1.8 for bit set methods.

[Gary Gregory]

Created an attachment (id=10886)
Patch to BinaryTest v.1.9 for BitSet methods.

[Michael Heuer]

Re: 2)

COM-1068 contains a BitSetUtils class submitted to [lang].

[Gary Gregory]

Set to FIXED. The class BinaryCodec seems ready for release.