headers

[Warpten]

Headers are poorly handled and need a rewrite. stat.

Current implementation:

• A front-facing Header type is provided to the user - it only exposes record count, signature, and uh, that's it I think ? Takes an implementation of IFileHeader or another instance of itself as ctor argument.
• IFileHeader is an interface that acts as a base for all header types, which are defined per-signature. This means that header implementations turn into property hell.

Desirable properties of new headers:

• value types (struct), bonus points for immutability (readonly struct).
• Unsafe.SizeOf<T>() must match the binary size of the header in the file (give or take the 4 bytes for magic identifier).
• Avoid copying as much as possible (ref readonly getter returns).
• Can leverage existing block handling mechanics for serialization.
• Avoid property hell where => throw new NotImplementedException(); is the default "i shouldn't be called" implementation. If you don't have it, don't expose it.

[Warpten]

Slightly improved by e32095757196d364895fce40e7bf44eed8c2ab5a.

Problems

• Unclear from reading code that the handler immediately parses the file.
• Property hell moved to the handler as well as the base interface.

Desirable improvement: parse the header up front (before even considering parsing the file) and select the parser based on that

[Warpten]

Further improved, the issue of not knowing the header is read upfront still persists

[Warpten]

Closed by f2456da316deed83dce3cf17431367b6203a4412