The Case Against Autodecode

[Chris via Digitalmars-d]

On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 01:00:54 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 5/12/2016 5:47 PM, Jack Stouffer wrote:
>> D is much less popular now than was Python at the time, and 
>> Python 2 problems
>> were more straight forward than the auto-decoding problem.  
>> You'll need a very
>> clear migration path, years long deprecations, and automatic 
>> tools in order to
>> make the transition work, or else D's usage will be 
>> permanently damaged.
>
> I agree, if it is possible at all.

I don't know to which extent my problems with string handling are 
related to autodecode. However, I had to write some utility 
functions to get around issues with code points, graphemes and 
the like. While it is not a huge issue in terms of programming 
time, it does slow down my program, because even simple 
operations may be referred to a utility function to make sure the 
result is correct (.length for example). But that might be an 
issue related to Unicode in general (or D's handling of it).

If autodecode is killed, could we have a test version asap? I'd 
be willing to test my programs with autodecode turned off and see 
what happens. Others should do likewise and we could come up with 
a transition strategy based on what happened.