[fpc-devel] Unicode RTL

[Marco van de Voort]

> > allowing to reuse the OS independant code. 
> > 
> > However this doesn't work fully this way, since unicode internally also hits
> > OS-independant code hard. IOW the separate target only solves the windows
> > unit defaults.
> 
> Indeed. What is proposed is that the system independent RTL uses an 
> abstract string type (Tnativestring) which is widestring or ansistring 
> depending on target.

That only solves the typing. Not the duplication of all string code in the
RTL. (accessing strings with [] e.g.), unless you choose a fixed width
character encoding and semantics that are 100% ansistring compatible. 

> What should be done on Linux/FreeBSD/MacOS is still unknown to me, it is a
> wild west, but likely something similar, internally a widestring rtl is
> used that converts to the right encoding when communicating externally.

Problem is that this is a costly system that decreases string performance
significantly. Moreover I don't like solutions that don't tackle all
platforms at once, since that means the other platforms might be pushed into
an unsuitable model when they start implementing.