Re: [boost] Silly Boost.Locale default narrow stringencodinginWindows

Subject: Re: [boost] Silly Boost.Locale default narrow stringencodinginWindows
From: Yakov Galka (ybungalobill_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-10-28 07:31:40

On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 13:17, Alf P. Steinbach <
alf.p.steinbach+usenet_at_[hidden]> wrote:

> On 28.10.2011 12:36, Yakov Galka wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 04:23, Alf P. Steinbach<
>> alf.p.steinbach+usenet_at_gmail.**com <alf.p.steinbach%2Busenet_at_[hidden]>>
>>  wrote:
>>
>>  On 27.10.2011 23:56, Peter Dimov wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> The advantage of using UTF-8 is that, apart from the border layer that
>>>> calls the OS (and that needs to be ported either way), the rest of the
>>>> code is happily char[]-based.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Oh.
>>>
>>> I would be happy to learn this.
>>>
>>> How do I make the following program work with Visual C++ in Windows,
>>> using
>>> narrow character string?
>>>
>>>
>>> <code>
>>> #include<stdio.h>
>>> #include<fcntl.h>       // _O_U8TEXT
>>> #include<io.h>          // _setmode, _fileno
>>> #include<windows.h>
>>>
>>> int main()
>>> {
>>>    //SetConsoleOutputCP( 65001 );
>>>    //_setmode( _fileno( stdout ), _O_U8TEXT );
>>>    printf( "Blåbærsyltetøy! 日本国 кошка!\n" );
>>> }
>>> </code>
>>>
>>>
>> How will you make this program portable?
>>
>
> Well, that was *my* question.
>
> The claim that this minimal "Hello, world!" program puts to the point, is
> that "the rest of the [UTF-8 based] code is happily char[]-based".
>
> Apparently that is not so.

My point is that you cannot talk about things without comparison.

>  The out-commented code is from my random efforts to Make It Work(TM).
>>
>>>
>>> It refused.
>>>
>>>
>> This is because windows narrow-chars can't be UTF-8. You could make it
>> portable by:
>>
>> int main()
>> {
>>     boost::printf("Blåbærsyltetøy! 日本国 кошка!\n");
>> }
>>
>
> Thanks, TIL boost::printf.
>
> The idea of UTF-8 as a universal encoding seems now to be to use some
> workaround such as boost::printf for each and every case where it turns out
> that it doesn't work portably.
>

You pull things out of context. We should COMPARE the UTF-8 approach to the
wide-char on windows narrow-char on non-windows approach. Your approach
involves using your own printf just as well:

#include "u/stdio_h.h"      // u::CodingValue, u::printf, U
printf(U("Blåbærsyltetøy! 日本国 кошка!\n")); // ADL?
u::printf(U("Blåbærsyltetøy! 日本国 кошка!\n")); // or not ADL? depends on what
exactly U is.

but anyway you have to do O(N) work to wrap the N library functions you use.

Your approach is no way better.

> [...]
>
> [snip]
>
>> You judge from a non-portable coed point-of-view. How about:
>>
>> #include <cstdio>
>>
>> #include "gtkext/message_box.h" // for gtkext::message_box
>>
>> int main()
>> {
>>     char buffer[80];
>>     sprintf(buffer, "The answer is %d!", 6*7);
>>     gtkext::message_box(buffer, "This is a title!",
>> gtkext::icon_blah_blah,
>> ...);
>> }
>>
>> And unlike your code, it's magically portable! (thanks to gtk using UTF-8
>> on
>> windows)
>>
>
> Aha. When you use a library L that translates in platform-specific ways
> to/from UTF-8 for you, then UTF-8 is magically portable. For use of L.
>
> However, try to pass a `main` argument over to gtkext::message_box.
>

See the argv explanation in
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel/225036

-- 
Yakov