James Porter wrote:
since std::wfstream just converts ASCII to UTF-16.
Just nit-picking here: it converts to wchar_t, which may or may not be UTF-16. On Win32 platforms, it is, but on Linux, for example, it's UTF-32.
Variable-width-encoded strings should be fairly straightforward when they are immutable, but will probably get hairy when they can be modified.
True. I think the strings should be immutable. I think experience with Java and C# compared to C++ shows that an immutable string class is superior in most use cases.
That said, I think a good (general) roadmap for this project would be: 1) Extend std::basic_string to store UCS-2 / UCS-4 (should be easy, though string constants may pose a problem)
Doesn't basic_string<wchar_t> do just that already? Sebastian Redl