Re: [boost] Change to guidelines for characters in C++ source files

Subject: Re: [boost] Change to guidelines for characters in C++ source files
From: Sebastian Redl (sebastian.redl_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-06-26 05:24:42

On 26.06.2015 00:15, Paul Mensonides wrote:
> On 6/25/2015 7:12 AM, Beman Dawes wrote:
>
>> It looks to me like it is high time to change the Boost guideline for 
>> C++
>> source file encoding to 7-bit ASCII without BOM or UTF-8 with BOM, 
>> and to
>> change the inspect program accordingly.
>>
>> Comments?
>
> BOM is evil.
The Microsoft compiler will treat files without a BOM as encoded in its 
local codepage, with no way to override. If you want MSVC to read the 
source as UTF-8, you need a BOM.

They have no plans to change this either, see 
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Feedback/Details/888437 . The 
bug is closed as wontfix.

"Unfortunately, we currently have no plans to implement the support of 
UTF-8 files without byte order marks."

Thus, we need a BOM in our source files if they contain UTF-8. That's 
just a sad fact.

And yes, it makes me angry.

Sebastian