Re: [Caml-list] GSoC: better UTF-8 support

[Dario Teixeira <darioteixeira@yahoo.com>]

Hi,

> Frankly I see no benefit of introducing this half-baked UTF-8 support
> into the standard library (which is what this proposal is about).

I tend to agree with Daniel.  In my mind I already rename the stdlib
types char/string into byte/blob.  For many common operations (like
concatenation) it is perfectly safe to use these stdlib blob-oriented
functions with UTF8 encoded strings.  For others -- like accessing
char at position N -- the blob-oriented functions will fail.  However,
if your app needs UTF8-aware functions, it is very likely that sooner
or later you will also need support for some of the more complex
aspects of Unicode, at which point a half-arsed implementation will
not suffice and you will need to link an external library anyway.
Therefore, either the stdlib should remain strictly blob-oriented
(which is fine by me), or it should get serious about Unicode support.

Cheers,
Dario Teixeira