First Impressions

[Georg Wrede]

BCS wrote:
> I may be just rambling but...
> 
> how about have the type of the value denote the encoding. One for ASCII 
> would only ever store ASCII (UTF-8 is invalid)

Then all Americans would use that instead of UTF-8.

This is natural, since first you code for yourself, later maybe for your 
boss, etc. And, you'd only become aware of any problems when a Latino 
tries to use his own name José, talk about Motörhead, or Anaïs the 
fragrance. And the mail and newsreader you wrote in D simply would not work.

Guess if anybody would heed the warning "Only use this new ASCII 
encoding when you are absolutely positive the program never will 
encounter a single foreign sentence or letter".

So, better not.

---

D's current setup and documentation engourage this kind of suggestions, 
and I don't blame you.

Things being like they are, a programmer who wants to write a crossword 
puzzle generator, would of course begin with:

char[20][20] theGrid;

It's a shame that an otherwise so excellent language ( + the wording it 
its docs) downright leads you to do this.

The guy naturally assumes that D being a "UTF-8" language, this would 
work even in Chinese. (Hey, char[] foo = "José Motörhead from the band 
Anaïs is on stage!"; works, so why wouldn't theGrid? Poor guy.

I can't blame anyone then wanting to stay within ASCII for the rest of 
D's life.