# muhex
> [!WARNING]
> `muhex` requires a nightly version of the Rust compiler.
Muhex provides encoding and decoding in a hexadecimal representation, focusing on speed. It has zero dependencies (one optional, `serde`), compiles instantly and is faster.
## Usage
Install the crate using the normal incantations:
```sh
cargo +nightly add muhex
```
Then, you can use it as expected, and the interface is meant to mirror the one on the [`hex`](https://docs.rs/hex) crate, like encoding:
```rust
println!("{}", muhex::encode("Hello world!")); // Prints "48656c6c6f20776f726c6421"
```
And decoding:
```rust
println!("{}", muhex::decode("48656c6c6f20776f726c6421")?); // Prints "Hello world!"
```
If you already own a buffer, you can decode without any allocation:
```rust
let mut buf = vec![0u8; 12];
muhex::decode_to_slice("48656c6c6f20776f726c6421", &mut buf)?;
```
## Benchmarks
This is a benchmark on my own machine against the `hex` and
[`faster-hex`](https://crates.io/crates/faster-hex) crates.
* Command: `RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=native -C target-feature=+avx2,+avx,+sse2" cargo bench --all-features`
* Machine: Ryzen 7950X3D 128GB DDR5 RAM
Check [BENCHMARKS.md](./BENCHMARKS.md). In short: it's really fast, more than 100x faster in some points. Please note that we can only achieve this performance because we only work on nightly Rust and explicitly enforce SIMD. This is not a statement about the quality or performance of the competing crates—most applications may not benefit from any of these changes.