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Subject: Re: [boost] [general] What will string handling in C++ look like in the future [was Always treat ... ]
From: Matus Chochlik (chochlik_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-01-19 14:03:59


On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 7:39 PM, Dave Abrahams <dave_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>
> Our influence, if we introduce new library components, is very great,
> because they're on a de-facto fast track to standardization, and an
> improved string library is exactly the sort of thing that would be
> adopted upstream.  If we simply agree to a programming convention,
> that will have some impact, but much less.

OK, I see. But, is there any chance that the standard itself would be updated
so that it first would recommend to use UTF-8 with C++ strings.
After some period of time all other encodings would be deprecated
and using them would cause undefined behavior. Could Boost
be the driving force here?

I really see all the obstacles that prevent us from just switching
to UTF-8, but adding a new string class will not help for the same
reasons adding wstring did not help.
As I already said elsewhere I think that this is a problem that has
to be solved "organizationally".

>
>> > *Scenario E:* We add another string class and everyone adopts it
>>
>> Ok I admit that this is possible. But let me ask: How did the C world
>> made the transition without abandoning char ?
>
> The transition from what to what?

I meant that for example on POSIX OSes the POSIX C-API
did not have to be changed or extended by a new set of functions
doing the same things, but using a new character type, when they
switched from the old encodings to UTF-8.

To compare two strings you still can use stdcmp and not utf8strcmp,
to collate strings you use strcoll and not utf8strcol, etc.

I must admit that the previous statement is an oversimplification and that
the things also rely on the C/C++ locale, etc.

>
> --
> Dave Abrahams
> BoostPro Computing
> http://www.boostpro.com
>
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
________________
::matus_chochlik

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