[fpc-devel] UTF8 RTL

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014, Michael Schnell wrote:

> On 11/23/2014 05:28 PM, Marco van de Voort wrote:
>> I meant in the way Mattias proposed, continueing making the default 
>> "string" type utf8 on Windows.
> As with Windows, the OS requires API access with UTF-16 encoded strings this 
> would force lots of auto-conversions, not only in the RTL but with any GUI 
> Library, as well.
>
> Same would be true for making the default "string" type utf16 (or whatever) 
> on Linux.
>
> OTOH using different default "string" types on different platforms auks for 
> severe compatibility problems when trying to do portable programs.
>
> Catch 22 :-( .
>
> (I myself vote for killing the type "String" completely and allow/force the 
> user to do a Type definition for "String" himself that is used in his code, 
> e.g. in a central unit.)

How do you reconcile this with the fact that pascal should be easy, and it should be usable for teaching ?

In my personal experience, 99% of people really do not care or even know about encodings.
The reason is quite simple: lots of programs are written in 1 language.

Let's not get carried away, please... keep it simple.

Michael.