Document valtree

Author: oli-obk

compiler/rustc_middle/src/ty/consts/valtree.rs

@@ -3,8 +3,26 @@ use rustc_macros::HashStable;
 
 #[derive(Copy, Clone, Debug, Hash, TyEncodable, TyDecodable, Eq, PartialEq, Ord, PartialOrd)]
 #[derive(HashStable)]
+/// This datastructure is used to represent the value of constants used in the type system.
+///
+/// We explicitly choose a different datastructure from the way values are processed within
+/// CTFE, as in the type system equal values must also have equal representation.
+/// Since CTFE uses `AllocId` to represent pointers, it often happens that two different
+/// `AllocId`s point to equal values. So we may end up with different representations for
+/// two constants whose value is `&42`. Furthermore any kind of struct that has padding will
+/// have arbitrary values within that padding, even if the values of the struct are the same.
+/// 
+/// `ValTree` does not have this problem with representation, as it only contains integers or
+/// lists of values of itself.
 pub enum ValTree<'tcx> {
+    /// ZSTs, integers, `bool`, `char` are represented as scalars.
+    /// See the `ScalarInt` documentation for how `ScalarInt` guarantees that equal values
+    /// of these types have the same representation.
     Leaf(ScalarInt),
+    /// The fields of any kind of aggregate. Structs, tuples and arrays are represented by
+    /// listing their fields' values in order.
+    /// Enums are represented by storing their discriminant as a field, followed by all
+    /// the fields of the variant.
     Branch(&'tcx [ValTree<'tcx>]),
 }