Phil Endecott wrote:
Matt Gruenke wrote:
Something that might be worth a look is Glib::ustring, in glibmm-2.
http://www.gtkmm.org/docs/glibmm-2.4/docs/reference/html/classGlib_1_1ustrin...
- It uses size_type to pass and return positions in the string, and doesn't specify whether these are byte or character positions; I get the impression that they're character positions but I could be wrong.
Given that they highlight the pitfalls of byte-based addressing in std::string (when instantiated with multibyte characters) |std::string::operator[] <http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/libstdc++/latest-doxygen/classstd_1_1basic__string.html#std_1_1basic__stringa79>| might return a byte in the middle of a character, and |std::string::length() <http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/libstdc++/latest-doxygen/classstd_1_1basic__string.html#std_1_1basic__stringa71>| returns the number of bytes rather than characters and that virtually everywhere size_type is used (where there's documentation), they explicitly state that it describes a number of characters, I think it's character-based. Also, they provide a bytes() member function, in addition to size() and length().
- It offers implicit conversion to and from std::string. Is this desirable?
I feel the danger and potential for confusion easily outweigh the benefits. I agree that something like a str() member function is the way to go. Matt