Re: [boost] [General] Always treat std::strings as UTF-8

Subject: Re: [boost] [General] Always treat std::strings as UTF-8
From: Alexander Lamaison (awl03_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-01-15 12:04:24

On Sat, 15 Jan 2011 10:08:22 -0500, Chad Nelson wrote:

> On Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:59:09 -0500
> Dave Abrahams <dave_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> 
>> Also, is there any use in trying to get the difference into the type
>> system, e.g. by using some kind of wrapper over std::string that gives
>> it a distinct "utf-8" type?
> 
> The system I'm now using for my programs might interest you.
> 
> I have four classes: ascii_t, utf8_t, utf16_t, and utf32_t. 

... snip

> There are some parts of the code that could use polishing, but I like
> the overall design, and I'm finding it pretty easy to work with. Anyone
> interested in seeing the code?

Yes please!  This sounds roughly like the solution I'd been imagining
where, for instance, boost::filesystem::path has string and wstring
contructors that work as they do now but also has path(utf8_string)
constructors that must be called like this:

std::string system_encoded_text = some_non_utf8_aware_library_call();
filesystem::path utf8_file_path(boost::utf8_string(system_encoded_text));

The utf8_string class would do the conversion from the system encoding.

Alex

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