Re: [boost] [general] What will string handling in C++ look like in the future [was Always treat ... ]

Subject: Re: [boost] [general] What will string handling in C++ look like in the future [was Always treat ... ]
From: Dave Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-01-19 23:18:05

At Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:25:34 +0000,
Brent Spillner wrote:
> 
> On 1/19/2011 11:33 AM, Peter Dimov wrote:
> > This was the prevailing thinking once. First this number of bits was 16,
> > which incorrect assumption claimed Microsoft and Java as victims, then
> > it became 21 (or 22?). Eventually, people realized that this will never
> > happen even if we allocate 32 bits per character, so here we are.
> 
> The OED lists ~600,000 words, so 32 bits is enough space to provide a
> fully pictographic alphabet for over 7,000 languages as rich as English,
> with room for a few line-drawing characters left over.  Surely that's enough?

Even if it's theoretically possible, the best standards organization
the world has come up with for addressing these issues was unable to
produce a standard that did it.  As far as I'm concerned, Boost is
stuck with the results of the Unicode Consortium until some better
standards body comes along, and the likelihood of anyone generating
the will to overturn their results as the dominant paradigm is so low
as to render that possibility unworthy of attention.  Certainly, doing
it ourselves is out-of-scope for Boost.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com