On Feb 28, 2023, at 11:31 AM, Peter Xu peterx@redhat.com wrote:
Anyhow, thanks for all the explanations. Eventually, I understand that using bitmaps can be more efficient than a log if the bits are condensed.
Note that I think what Muhammad (sorry, Muhammad! I think I spelled your name wrongly before starting from some email..) proposed is not a bitmap, but an array of ranges that can coalesce the result into very condensed form. Pros and cons.
Again, I can't comment much on that API, but since there're a bunch of other developers looking at that and they're also potential future users, I'll trust their judgement and just focus more on the other side of things.
Thanks Peter for your patience.
I would just note that I understood that Muhammad did not propose a condensed bitmap, and that was a hint that handling a condensed bitmap (at least on x86) can be done rather efficiently. I am not sure about other representations.
Thanks for your explanations again, Peter.