[fpc-pascal] Strings - suggestions

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Sat, 22 Dec 2012, dev.dliw at gmail.com wrote:

> Hi,
> concerning the string topic, for me (using fpc since 2.0.4 on a regular basis;
> TP experience ~ average user) there really should be an decision what way to
> go as early as possible.

- We'll implement the capacity to have a code-page aware string type, as Delphi has.
   (well, it is there already).

- The {$H } directive will be extended so you can choose which string type you need per unit.
   (ansi/wide/utf16/utf8...)
   This is different from Delphi, where you don't have this choice: String=Widestring.

- The necessary conversions will be inserted by the compiler.
   (in fact, they are there already)

- Supplying the type on the command-line will make it the project default.
   We can think about a directive that can be specified in a project file.

Because of the requirement for backwards compatibility with FPC itself, 
we'll make 2 RTLs: one backwards compatible, one with the new unicode string.

Michael.