[fpc-pascal] Re: Strings - suggestions

[Reinier Olislagers]

On 22-12-2012 12:55, Michael Van Canneyt wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Dec 2012, dev.dliw-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
> 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.
So how would the patch in e.g.
http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=22095
fit in?
That uses widestrings to support non-ASCII characters for ODBC and
should be in the fcl-db.
I suppose chosing any string type that is convenient in various fcl
units could lead to a lot of useless conversions.
How can this be avoided?

> - 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.

Thanks,
Reinier