What's left for 1.0? - string class

[Aarti_pl]

I can not believe no one is using utf-8 characters in his program and is 
not concerned about issues with current D char[] implementation, so I 
repost my previous post. Sorry about reposting - if no one will comment 
I will get a lesson and thing that maybe this issue is not so much 
important.

But preferably I will get some even negative comments about importance 
of having string class built in...

For me string class is something what could significantly improve 
quality of libraries for D.

Best Regards
Marcin Kuszczak


Marcin Kuszczak napisał(a):
> Bill Baxter wrote:
> 
>> So, what's left on everyone's lists for D1.0 must-have features?
> 
> I think that one thing which is missed in phobos right now is string class
> which encapsulates utf-8/utf-16/utf-32 handling and issues connected with
> utf-8 strings e.g.:
> 
>         char[] foo = "hög";
>         assert(foo.length == 3); // Sorry UTF-8, this is == 4
>         assert(foo[1] == 'ö');   // Not a chance!
> 
> It's really annoying to write application in language different than English
> (or multi-language application) using just currently available language
> support (please note that I am not saying that in C++ it's better :-) - I
> am just saying that it could be greatly improved).
> 
> Problems which I see with current language support are:
> 1. You need 3 types of functions which are doing same, but getting different
> char arrays - char[]/wchar[]/dchar[] as parameters, to write good API you
> have to write. Best (maybe I should write worst ;-) ) example is Phobos API
> 2. It's quite easy to make wrong assumptions about utf-8 encoded arrays. See
> example above. It could cause slicing string in wrong place, making it
> improperly formatted utf-8 string.
> 3. What is char[] is probably not so clear for newbies. Especially for
> utf-8: is char really one character/code point?
> 4. String class should be more than just array of characters. It should
> probably have some more methods like e.g. removing characters from middle
> of string and much more.
> 
> Some time ago Chris Miller posted on news list dstring implementation which
> looks quite good for me(link to site:
> http://www.dprogramming.com/dstring.php).
> 
> But if Walter is not happy enough with this implementation now maybe there
> should be at least added alias in object.d:
> alias char[] string;
> 
> I personally vote for dstring.
>