Expose all prototype methods as statics methods that accepts Uint8Array values

[Gozala]

As per conversation on twitter https://twitter.com/hugomrdias/status/1114678814754463746 I propose we update this library to expose all methods as static methods so that Uint8Array instances can be passed and to make it possible to make Uint8Array a canonical type for passing around bytes rather than node's Buffer.

If all works out we can attempt to uplift changes to the upstream.

/cc @lidel @hugomrdias @mikeal

[Gozala]

It is also worth considering significant API surface overlaps with DataView missing pieces are:

• toString with all the encoding (which I think is primary thing missing in web APIs).
• write again with all the encodings
• transcode
• swap16 / swap32 / swap64 Not sure how big of a deal is this in practice ((I never needed it).

So I think it's fare to say it's mostly about text encoding / decoding in various encodings there for it might make sense to create TextEncoder / TextDecoder style libs for those encodings.

Node Buffer also has different behavior for slice from type arrays (quote from node docs):

Buffer instances are also Uint8Array instances. However, there are subtle incompatibilities with TypedArray. For example, whileArrayBuffer#slice() creates a copy of the slice, the implementation of Buffer#slice() creates a view over the existing Buffer without copying, making Buffer#slice() far more efficient.

However type arrays offer subarray method that behaves similar to slice on buffers so I don't think there is a need to deal with that.

[lidel]

cc @vmx @alanshaw ipfs-inactive/interface-js-ipfs-core#404

[Gozala]

Looks like @mikeal is on it https://github.com/mikeal/bytesish

[mikeal]

bytesish is certainly related to this issue, as they are tackling a similar underlying problem, but i don’t think that byteish actually solves this particular issue.

[Gozala]

You're are right. It's just my primary goal had being to get rid of Buffer dependency and if we can accomplish that with smaller library like bytesish instead it's even better.