[fpc-devel] But what /is/ a string?

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

I wonder if I could ask a silly question. My understanding is that 
strings are pretty much unique in not being objects, and relying on a 
fair amount of compiler and RTL wizardry to handle reference counting etc.

I note somebody at Embarcadero blogging [Paraphrase follows] "Delphi is 
being enhanced by adding memory management features such as reference 
counting".

Would there be any advantage in reimplementing strings as a tree of 
classes, with the compiler doing appropriate things to change e.g. Pos() 
into String.Pos(), UnicodeString.Pos() or whatever as appropriate?

-- 
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]