[erlang-questions] Booleans in bit syntax

[Viktor Söderqvist]

Adding a boolean type specifier in the bit syntax would be useful, I
think. Then you could write

    decode_stuff(<<Flag1/boolean, Flag2/boolean, 0:6, Rest/binary>>) ->
        {Flag1, Flag2, Rest}.

instead of

    decode_stuff(<<F1:1, F2:1, 0:6, Rest/binary>>) ->
        Flag1 = case F1 of 1 -> true;
                           0 -> false
                end,
        Flag2 = case F2 of 1 -> true;
                           0 -> false;
                end,
        {Flag1, Flag2, Rest}.

Many binary protocols contain flags and indicators, typically used as
booleans in application logic with 1 for true, 0 for false.

The default size would be 1 bit, i.e. Size = 1 and Unit = 1. It would be
for constructing binaries as well. It is intuitive and it would be
backward compatible.

What do you think? Any reason for not adding it?

Viktor