net: Treat raw message bytes as uint8_t #20432

Using uint8_t from the beginning when messages are recved has two style benefits:

• The signedness is clear from reading the code, as it does not depend on the architecture
• When passing the bytes on, the need for static signedness casts is dropped, making the code a bit less verbose and more coherent

Should std::byte be used for raw bytes now that we're on c++17?

Concept ACK, @jnewbery :+1:

I don't think we can use std::byte because it is type-safe. Using it would require changing all code (net, hashes, ...) or adding verbose wrappers again.

Don't you just hate it when too much type safety gets in the way of using the standard library.

Concept ACK

I was personally never convinced that std::byte adds that much type safety over using unsigned 8-bit integers as bytes (which at least makes manipulating them architecture-independent, without signedness sharp edges). I like uint8_t myself.

Code Review ACK fabecce71909c984504c21fa05f91d5f1b471e8c

Concept ACK

I like how this gets rid of all the casts except the one at the OS boundary (recv). no more casting back and forth. CDataStream next? :smile:

Code review ACK fabecce71909c984504c21fa05f91d5f1b471e8c

Tested ACK fabecce71909c984504c21fa05f91d5f1b471e8c

CDataStream next? :smile:

Done in #20464 :sweat_smile: