Re: [boost] [gsoc] Request Feedback for Boost.Ustr Unicode String Adapter

Subject: Re: [boost] [gsoc] Request Feedback for Boost.Ustr Unicode String Adapter
From: Dave Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-08-13 14:02:43

on Thu Aug 11 2011, Artyom Beilis <artyomtnk-AT-yahoo.com> wrote:

>> From: Daniel James <dnljms_at_[hidden]>
>
>> Subject: Re: [boost] [gsoc] Request Feedback for Boost.Ustr Unicode String Adapter
>> 
>> On 11 August 2011 12:03, Artyom Beilis <artyomtnk_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>> 
>>>        The problem is policy the problem is Boost just can't decide once
>>>        and forever that std::string is UTF-8...
>> 
>> Even if there was a consensus within boost, that isn't feasible. We
>> don't own std::string, so we don't have a say in what it represents.
>
> std::string represents a sequence of "char" objects that happens
> to be useful for text processing. It can represent a text in any
> encoding.
>
> The question is how we treat this sequence... And this is a
> matter of policy and requirements of the library.

I think I agree with Artyom here.  *Somebody* has to decide how that
datatype will be interpreted when we receive it.  Unless we refuse
altogether to accept std::string in our interfaces (which sounds like a
bad idea to me), why not make the decision that it's UTF-8?

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com