Re: [boost] Comment on string / unicode discussion

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-07-05 23:30:26

To implement part of the serialization library, I defined composable
iterators that could be composed in any sequence.  This permitted
me to a small number of iterators that could be composed at
compile time to generate a much larger number of possible
transforming iterators.  I called these "Dataflow" iterators.  They
are used for thinks like converting strings from wide char to base64
and things like that.  I've never been able to convince anyone else
of the merit of the approach - but hope springs eternal.

Robert Ramey

Sean Parent wrote:
> I don't have enough time to delve deeply into this thread but I
> thought I'd make a few passing comments.
>
> Adobe has a fairly major string class problem (we joke that every
> project must have it's own string class - which is nearly true).
> There isn't such thing as a single type of string - there are _many_
> purposes and you need to be able to handle things like language and
> style runs and large, large blocks of text with efficient edits, UI
> substations (which are aware of things like split negation and
> masculine/feminine forms), language based ordering, different
> encodings...
>
> We need another string class like a hole in the head.
>
> What we do need - are good standard algorithms which can be applied
> to any string class.
>
> I believe this is doable with the current iterator interface.
>