Lexicographic ordering

[danvk]

You can compare ordinary arrays lexicographically using memcmp, which is often highly-optimized for whatever system you're on. Depending on exactly how you bitpack the arrays, memcmp may or may not work. It would helpful if the docs mentioned whether memcmp worked with PackedArray. Ideally it would, and maybe the arrays could implement operator<=> or a compare method.

[gpakosz]

Hello @danvk,

Given that accessing elements is supposed to be achieved through PackedArray_get() or in bulk with PackedArray_unpack(), there's indeed no guarantee of anything if you access buffer directly and give it to memcmp().

As of the docs mentioning it, well maybe, but that remark would also apply to anything trying to access buffer directly when it's not supposed to.