[fpc-devel] bug report 20473: Please add a directive to define string=utf8string

[Marco van de Voort]

In our previous episode, michael.vancanneyt at wisa.be said:
> > 2. Try a blanket {$H} to make the default stringtype what you want, and fix
> >   problems (e.g. overrides of methods, passing to var params).
> 
> The blanket {$H} seems like the way to go for most packages.
> If we insert {$H ANSISTRING}, then most packages should remain functional,
> allowing us to tackle the packages one by one.

The more procedural packages yes. The OOP ones not, since their stringtype
must match classes for overrides.

And the OOP fcl- packages are the ones that are used the most I think.

> Codepage conversions should happen automatically, except for the case of 
> Var params, but these need to be sorted out anyway.

Var (/const/out?) parameters, inheritance, events (procedure variables) with
strings as parameters.  There will probably be more found when conversion
really starts.

> But I would like to hear from Florian, Jonas or Paul whether they think this
> is possible. If I remember correctly, Florian proposed something similar
> some years ago.

Afaik the only thing I heard from them is that they wanted to have an D2009
mode that would also change stringtype.  (string=unicodestring)