Ansi vs Unicode API

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

Denis Koroskin wrote:
> I'd like to raise 2 issues for a discussion.
> 
> First, Phobos makes calls to different functions, based on the OS we are 
> running on (e.g. CreateFileA vs. CreateFileW) and I wonder if it's 
> *really* necessary, since Microsoft has a Unicode Layer for those 
> Operating Systems.
> 
> All an application needs to do to call W API on those OS'es is link with 
> unicows.lib (which could be a part of Phobos). It does nothing on Win2k+ 
> and only triggers on 9x OS family.
> 
> A very good overview of it is written here:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688166.aspx
> 
> Second, "A" API accepts ansi strings as parameters, not UTF-8 strings. I 
> think this should be reflected in the function signatures, since D 
> encourages distinguishing between UTF-8 and ANSI strings and not store 
> the latter as char[].
> 
> LPCSTR currently resolves to char*/const(char)*, but it could be better 
> for it to be an alias to ubyte*/const(ubyte)* so that user couldn't pass 
> unicode string to an API that doesn't expect one. The same is applicable 
> to other APIs, too, for example, how does C stdlib co-operate with 
> Unicode? I.e. is core.stdc.stdio.fopen() unicode-aware?
> 
> What are your thoughts on the subject?

I think it's a great idea. Can phobos redistribute the unicows.lib (cute 
name)?

Andrei