Re: Using libunistring for string comparisons et al

[Andy Wingo <wingo@pobox.com>]

On Sat 19 Mar 2011 15:06, Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> writes:

> Let me ask you this: why would you oppose changing the scm_c_ functions
> to use UTF-8 by default?  If you're comfortable with ASCII-only names,
> then UTF-8 will work fine for you, since ASCII strings are unchanged in
> UTF-8.

This is true.  Well, I think UTF-8 is the Right Thing, but it is
complicated.  This discussion reminds me of the luserspace problem from
Worse is Better ;-)

I think I was clinging to ASCII because C is ASCII.  No one is clamoring
for "if" in Spanish, much less katakana identifiers.  I was thinking
that since we could not reap the benefits, why bother paying the cost.
But you have a good point that that might change in the future; who
knows?

If we do switch to UTF-8 in 2.2, though, then there's no real cost;
there's only benefits.  So perhaps we should just stop worrying about
potential costs, and learn to love the benefits (!), and just do the
UTF-8 thing.

I'm still being a little cagey in these replies as I haven't gotten to
the end of the thread yet :)

Andy
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