Re: [boost] [filesystem] introduce wide-only mode?

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-05-11 05:34:46

"John Maddock" <john_at_[hidden]> wrote in message 
news:00f801c674db$45280bb0$5c441b56_at_fuji...
> Beman Dawes wrote:
>> "Michael Fink" <michael.fink_at_[hidden]> wrote in message
>> news:26659.217.6.216.4.1146833083.squirrel_at_www.asamnet.de...
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> while porting Boost to evc4 I noticed that Boost.Filesystem makes
>>> heavy use of the Ansi Win32-API functions such as CreateFileA etc.
>>> There is a mode that can be enabled with the define
>>> BOOST_FILESYSTEM_NARROW_ONLY so that only Ansi APIs are used. Is it
>>> thinkable to introduce a BOOST_FILESYSTEM_WIDE_ONLY mode, e.g. when
>>> BOOST_NO_ANSI_APIS is defined? Should I try to implement such a
>>> mode, or is it too complicated?
>>
>> What would the motivation be?
>
> On WinCE there are only wide character file names, you'll get linker 
> errors
> if the narrow character stuff is included.

For WinCE, what is needed isn't to disable narrow paths, but to alter the 
implementation so that narrow paths get converted internally to wide paths. 
In other words, the reverse of the POSIX implementation, which converts wide 
paths to narrow.

There are several aspects of such an enhancement:

* The change to the implementation itself.

* Figuring out test cases and updating the regression tests.

* Finding one or more volunteers to run Boost regression tests for the WinCE 
platform.

Are there Boosters out there who care enough about Windows CE to take this 
on?

--Beman