Re: Using libunistring for string comparisons et al

[Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>]

I wrote:
> I'm aware that this proposal will be very controversial, but starting in
> Guile 2.2, I think we ought to consider storing strings internally in
> UTF-8, as is done in Gauche.  This would of course make string-ref and
> string-set! into O(n) operations.  However, I claim that any code that
> depends on string-ref and string-set! could be better written 

I guess I better write at least a few more arguments now, before minds
become hardened against it :)

It's a mistake to think of strings as arrays of characters.  This is an
adequate model for simple scripts, but not for more complex ones.  Even
Gerald Sussman said so in his recent WG1 ballot.

Gerald Sussman wrote in http://trac.sacrideo.us/wg/wiki/WG1BallotSussman
> It is not very good to think of strings as 1-dimensional arrays of
> characters.  What about accents and other hairy stuff? Be afraid!
> Consider the complexity of Unicode!

I claim that any reasonable code which currently uses string-ref and
string-set! could be more cleanly written using string ports or
string-{fold,unfold}{,-right}.

Anyway, I don't have time right now to write as persuasive an argument
as I'd like to.  After 2.0.1 perhaps I will try again.

      Mark