let undef_mask = &self.get(src.alloc_id)?.undef_mask;
+ // Since we are copying `size` bytes from `src` to `dest + i * size` (`for i in 0..repeat`),
+ // a naive undef mask copying algorithm would repeatedly have to read the undef mask from
+ // the source and write it to the destination. Even if we optimized the memory accesses,
+ // we'd be doing all of this `repeat` times.
+ // Therefor we precompute a compressed version of the undef mask of the source value and
+ // then write it back `repeat` times without computing any more information from the source.
+
// a precomputed cache for ranges of defined/undefined bits
// 0000010010001110 will become
// [5, 1, 2, 1, 3, 3, 1]