[boost] Re: Boost Unicode support ideas

From: Miro Jurisic (macdev_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-04-14 00:07:43

In article <87llkz47tz.fsf_at_[hidden]>, Jeremy Maitin-Shepard <jbms_at_[hidden]> 
wrote:

> What I am saying is that operations such as "convert to uppercase" on Unicode 
> strings are locale-independent, and thus such operations need not and should 
> not be part of the locale interface.

To clarify even further, Unicode incorporates some concepts that have 
traditionally been swept under the locale rug; string encodings and character 
properties fall in that category. Unicode does not completely replace locale 
facilities, of course, as it only deals with strings, and not with all other 
l10n/i18n issues.

Furthermore, the locale abstraction is not always compatible with the Unicode 
abstraction; this is primarily because the locale abstraction defines characters 
as fixed-size entities and treats many transformations, such as case change, as 
1-1 mappings, whereas Unicode uses a more general definition that works in more 
languages and locales.

As a result, just because Unicode and locales both deal with some of the same 
concepts, that doesn't mean their treatment is compatible.

meeroh

-- 
If this message helped you, consider buying an item
from my wish list: <http://web.meeroh.org/wishlist>