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: Artyom (artyomtnk_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-01-20 00:39:48

> 
> > Boost  can and **should** decide - we use Unicode - and
> > we use UTF-8 as all  frameworks did.
> 
> Except for all the UTF-16 frameworks you cited  above?
> 

Short reminder: 

  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1049947/should-utf-16-be-considered-harmful

- Qt support UTF-16 only from version 4, before that Qt3 supported only UCS-2!
  (At it wasn't long time ago)
- Java Supports UTF-16 from 1.5 before UCS-2
- Windows somehow supports UTF-16 starting from XP
- MS SQL Server does not support UTF-16 yet (only UCS-2)

I can continue...

UTF-16 is a "historical mistake" because some (long)
time ago Unicode supposed to be 16 bit,
and in those days 16 bit character was very reasonable but
it didn't worked - so UTF-16 was invented.

No modern project should pick it as it give more problems
the headache. 

Not to mention that before char16_t would be supported in 
all compiler it would be hard time to support it in C++.

(and not wchar_t is not good for UTF-16)

Just a small point before we may think of picking
UTF-16.

My $0.02

Artyom