Re: C and C++, promotion, stabilization, migrationFor embedded

On 2024-08-25 02:39:44 +0000, Arne Vajhøj said:

On 8/24/2024 10:12 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:

On 2024-08-23 23:34:18 +0000, Arne Vajhøj said:

On 8/23/2024 11:32 AM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:

OpenVMS has ~no concept of languages, either. Yeah, the C abd C++ I18N giblets, Java and its own little world, maybe using the existing and older ICU or maybe you ported a newer ICU, and the deprecated Terminal Fallback Facility (TFF) and National (Replacement)  Character Set (NCS) giblets, sure. All of which make things more interesting for apps that want or need to deal with the UTF-8 and post-ASCII world.

 Regarding UTF-8 support, then  my take is that:
 UTF-8 in file names, in usernames, in logicals, in identifiers and in programs/scripts: not really needed.

 UTF-8 filenames — poorly documented — already exists and was necessary for a key app or two, though the rendering is ugly.
 Working on a system that supports UTF-8 ~everywhere including within the shell and within various languages and apps makes things easier.
 Systems that don't provide that support mean more work. It's feasible, but it's work.  Or it gets ignored, or implemented elsewhere.

 I fully get the need for UTF-8 support in anything data related.
For console/HTML/XML/JSON/YAML input/output then there is a functional need for UTF-8 support.
 But for all the implementation then I believe in keeping things English and ASCII.
 Filenames, database tablenames and fieldnames, program/script identifiers, VMS logicals etc.. Even comments should bein English (even though they may to use a little UTF-8 to reference various things).
 That is the safe choice for it being displayed correctly everywhere and being understandable by all future maintenance programmers.

If by "safe" you mean another in a series of easy but inevitably bad choices, and those choices that will confuse and frustrate future maintenance programmers, sure.
But again, UTF-8 support is already implemented in the OpenVMS file system, already in use, and with the usual pile of compatibility hacks.
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