[fpc-devel] Unicodestring branch, please test and help fixing

[listmember]

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
> I have to say I agree with you.... The Object Pascal / Delphi language
> already has way to many string types!  At it's just getting worse.
>
> I've always liked the Java style of everything being an object - even
> the string type.

The more I look at this Unicode issue, the more I believe we need a 
fundamental object aproach to it.

I mean, before a TString class, we need a TCharacter class in which we 
need to specify --amongst other things-- what language that character 
belongs to.

This kind of information is needed in order to properly manage the 
(upper-, lower-, title-, and camel-?) casing issues.

On top of this, we also need this information in order to be able to mix 
and match and display the LTR (left-to-right) and RTL (right-to-left) 
pieces of strings within the same string.

I have done some work on this, but there are at least 2 issues:

1) since each character is a class, memory requirements are increased 
several fold.

2) Again, the charater-as-class also means that the speed with wich we 
can create and destroy (and manipulate) a string is a lot slower.

I am, at this point, wondering if FPC's object creation/destroy code 
could be more optimized to be faster to help with this issue.

3) How do you handle the character sets when characters are objects?