24-bit int

[EntangledQuanta via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Saturday, 2 September 2017 at 00:43:00 UTC, Nicholas Wilson 
wrote:
> On Friday, 1 September 2017 at 22:10:43 UTC, Biotronic wrote:
>> On Friday, 1 September 2017 at 19:39:14 UTC, EntangledQuanta 
>> wrote:
>>> Is there a way to create a 24-bit int? One that for all 
>>> practical purposes acts as such? This is for 24-bit stuff 
>>> like audio. It would respect endianness, allow for arrays 
>>> int24[] that work properly, etc.
>>
>> I haven't looked at endianness beyond it working on my 
>> computer. If you have special needs in that regard, consider 
>> this a starting point:
>>
>>
>> struct int24 {
>>     ubyte[3] _payload;
>>
>>     this(int x) {
>>         value = x;
>>     }
>>
>>     ...
>> }
>>
>> --
>>   Biotronic
>
> You may also want to put an align(1) on it so that you dont 
> waste 25% of the allocated memory in an array of int24's

The whole point is so that there is no wasted space, so if it 
requires that then it's not a waste of space but a bug.

Audio that is in24 is 3 bytes per sample, not 4. Every 3 bytes 
are a sample, not every 3 out of 4.

Basically a byte[] cast to a int24 array should be 1/3 the size 
and every 3 bytes are the same as an int24.

Thanks for pointing this out if it is necessary.