Customizable hex width for `ion inspect`

[jobarr-amzn]

Sometimes the 8 bytes per row limitation ends up with values being wrapped across multiple rows of hex output where we might prefer them to be in a single row, e.g. this symbol table entry:

│          788 │           13 │ 8c 41 63 74 69 76 69 74 │ · · "ActivityTime",
│              │              │ 79 54 69 6d 65          │ · · -> ID $64

This might look better as:

│          788 │           13 │ 8c 41 63 74 69 76 69 74  79 54 69 6d 65          │ · · "ActivityTime", -> ID $64

Maybe something like the --terminal-width <N> option of hexyl, which controls the number hex panels rendered.

[popematt]

What's the problem that we're trying to solve here? Is it that there's too many lines? Is it that it's too hard to associate the bytes and the value together? Making the terminal width configurable doesn't solve either of these problems, it just adjusts the problem threshold.

If the problem is associating the values with the correct bytes, would something like this help?

│          788 │           13 │ 8c 41 63 74 69 76 69 74 │
│              │              │ 79 54 69 6d 65          │ · · "ActivityTime", -> ID $64

Or perhaps there should be some sort of option to truncate the display of scalar content, like this?

│          788 │           13 │ 8c 41 63 74 69 [+8 more] │ · · "ActivityTime", -> ID $64

[jobarr-amzn]

Yes, it's hard to associate the bytes and the values. Lacking other tooling for exploring symbol tables or macro definitions, ion inspect is the most convenient way to build tooling to e.g. "show every definition of this symbol" or "find all the IVMs" etc.

I don't think ion inspect should every literally say [+8 more], but if I'm processing inspect output with line-oriented tooling then simply ensuring that the symbol value and identity are on the same line (similar to your first example) would be enough.

│          788 │           13 │ 8c 41 63 74 69 76 69 74 │ · · "ActivityTime", -> ID $64
│              │              │ 79 54 69 6d 65          │