[boost] Re: Any interest in adding unicode support to boost?

From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-10-20 00:06:58

Erik Wien wrote:

> 
> Ultimately I feel that the operation of normalization (which involves 
> canonical decomposition) of unicode strings should be hidden from the user 
> completely and be performed automatically by the library where that is 
> needed. (Like on a call to the == operator.) I think that solution would be 
> satisfactory for most users as the normalization process is somewhat 
> intricate and really not something users should be forced to understand.
> 
> Are we at all on the same page now? 
> 

No. "Normalization" doesn't always mean canonical decomposition. There 
are several canonical forms, some of which *require* the use of 
composite characters. In fact, the XML standard requires such a 
canonical form. A Unicode library cannot hide the issue of 
canonicalization from the user, because users will care which canonical 
form is being used.

-- 
Eric Niebler
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com