[fpc-devel] The (near) future of strings

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Thu, 03 Mar 2016 06:35:35 +0000
Alfred <alfred at consulab.nl> wrote:

>[...]
> In the (near) future, I am still a very happy user of FPC. And mORMot. 
> And sometimes some version of Delphi > XE2.
> Lets say its 2017. And I am using FPC 3.2.0. Or FPC 4.0.
> 
> What mode will I be using when writing programs/frameworks for both 
> Delphi and FPC ?
> * is -Mdelphiunicode the way to go ?

The -Mdelphiunicode is the first step towards Delphi XE compatibility.
The next step is to provide a compatible UTF-16 UnicodeString RTL/FCL
and then third party packages like the LCL can be adapted. This would
be the most compatible solution. I don't know who is working on the
UTF-16 RTL/FCL. 


> * do we have a 100% UTF8 RTL.

Not 100%. For example the ThousandSeparator is defined as char.
And under Windows there are some units still using the Windows A
functions, so they only support the system codepage.

> * UTF16 / UTF32 ?

There are no plans for UTF32 strings.

> * ......
> 
> The question could also be: how to make a brand new start that is more 
> or less future proof and compatible with Delphi unicode.

Option 1: Help creating the UTF16 RTL/FCL and then use
mode delphiunicode.
Option 2: Use mode Delphi with IFDEFs and UTF-8 or system
codepage.

Mattias