Transparently encode native BigInt as strings

[zdm]

Hi, Is it possible to add support to encode BigInt as strings trransparently?

Something like this:

case 'bigint': 
        return _encode(bytes, defers, value.toString());

If this is acceptable, I can create pull request.

[darrachequesne]

Hi!

That's a good question actually. I'm wondering whether we should:

• encode it as string
• encode it as uint 64 (by using the BigInt.asUintN method)
• use an extension type

What is your opinion in this?

That being said, you should already be able to use the same trick as with JSON.stringify() (here):

BigInt.prototype.toJSON = function() { return this.toString()  }

[zdm]

BigInt.asUintN has limitations to the number of bits - in some cases we can lost data.

I think better is to encode / decode using custom extension type. Send it as string, and decode to BigInt.

[zdm]

so, what do you think?

[darrachequesne]

Yes, I think the best way is to add support for custom extensions (also requested in https://github.com/darrachequesne/notepack/issues/18).

I won't have much time for that in the short term though, would you have time to implement it? I'll be happy to merge it :+1:

[zdm]

What extension type in hex can be taken for this? Are you already use any numbers from this range [0, 127] (application-specific types)?

[zdm]

I will take 0x01 for BigInt.

PR ready.