[fpc-devel] Unicode and UTF8String

[Martin Friebe]

Mattias Gaertner wrote:
>  
>   
>>>> [...]
>>>> Also it would be nice (so I do not know how) not to have to
>>>> duplicate code, in order to archive this. Something like generics,
>>>> maybe. 
>>>>         
>>> The goal of RTLString is to avoid duplicate code in the RTL.
>>>   
>>>       
>> Yes I acknowledged that this would be a problem. And also RTLString
>> has the benefit, of allowing unicode fpc to be available far earlier
>> than it would otherwise.
>>
>> The question remains, could it then be extended/optimized? Maybe a 
>> generic like template (for functions, instead of objects)? Which
>> needs to be written only once, and the will be specialized for each
>> string type?
>>     
>
> Yes. 
> I wonder, how many are there that really need this?
> Can you estimate?
>
>   
You mean how many rttl functions would benefit. I do not know. But I do 
think it's the wrong question.
In order to do it you would want something like function-templates 
(generics equivalent for functions).

I do not believe such a template system would be developped for the sole 
purpose of doing the above rtl work.

If however such a template system would be implemented anyway (because 
it would benefit everyone in the same way generics do (actually I never 
checked: can generics do simple functions or only classes?)),  so if it 
was there, then why not use it for the rtl too? In such a scenario does 
it matter if you optimize 5 or 5000 functions?