socket encodings don't link to possible encoding values, and describe behaviour which does not exist

[sam-github]

The documentation at:

https://nodejs.org/api/stream.html#stream_readable_setencoding_encoding

...does not describe what all of the supported encodings are (there are more than just 'UTF8' and 'hex'), nor does it link to any further documentation on them. Also, this documentation refers to "setEncoding(null)" as the recommended approach for binary streams, which is incorrect and does not work (this defaults to UTF8 encoding). There also appears to be an undocumented or semi-documented 'binary' encoding.

On the other hand, the documentation for use of encodings on Buffer objects is comprehensive and informative:

https://nodejs.org/api/buffer.html#buffer_buffers_and_character_encodings

Reported in comment #11316 (comment) by @RickBullotta, I have not verified setEncoding(null) not working.

• Version: all
• Platform: not relevant
• Subsystem: doc, net

[sam-github]

@RickBullotta If you'd like to get involved in making this better, this is a good first contribution.

[QuentinGibson]

@sam-github Could I give it a shot? I never contributed before but this seems like a good starting point.

[RickBullotta]

@QuentinGibson - I already fixed the issue with the docs in readable.setEncoding() and submitted a pull request submitted. However, if you want to tackle documentation for the specific encoders and when/where they are used, and linking to the encoder docs from appropriate spots, that would be awesome. Thanks!

[QuentinGibson]

Edit: @RickBullotta For clarification, are encoders 'utf-8', 'hex', etc.
Also would I link 'utf-8' to the Buffer and Character encoding section