[fpc-devel] Unicode resource strings

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:35:17 +0200
Michael Schnell <mschnell at lumino.de> wrote:

> On 08/22/2012 10:56 AM, Mattias Gaertner wrote:
> > The UTF-8 optimized functions needs UTF-16 versions. But why do you 
> > mean it needs a "really thorough rework"? 
> Guesswork :-)
> > The LCL itself already has some widgetsets using UTF-16.
> Yep. So there the conversion needs to be dropped, while with the other a 
> conversion needs to be implemented.
> Thus Lazarus would get "compatible" with MSEGUI on that behalf.

Using the same string type is far from "compatible".


> > Strings speed is almost no issue for the LCL itself.
> I do believe that you are right here (Martin very often offered this 
> argument when explaining why he built MSEGUI the way it is.

I never saw Martin saying that he chose Widestring/Unicodestring
because speed does not matter.
AFAIK he choose widestring, because UCS2 is simpler than UTF-8 and was
completely sufficient for all his projects.


> > But many LCL applications and packages would suffer.
> Same issue as when Delphi made this move.

It is not the same.
Delphi moved from Windows CP to Unicode. That is a
necessary step the LCL has already taken years ago.
Now the RTL+FCL is moving to Unicode, which is necessary too.
The LCL is just one package from many that needs to adapt.

Mattias