.........
Dealing with bytes and Unicode is complicated, and the 2->3 transition is not
easy, but let's please not spread the misunderstanding that somehow the Flexible
String Representation is at fault. However you store Unicode code points, they
are different than bytes, and it is complex having to deal with both. You can't
somehow make the dichotomy go away, you can only choose where you want to think
about it.
--Ned.
.......
I don't think that's what I said; the flexible representation is just an added
complexity that has come about because of the wish to store strings in a compact
way. The requirement for such complexity is the unicode type itself (especially
the storage requirements) which necessitated some remedial action.
There's no point in fighting the change to using unicode. The type wasn't
required for any technical reason as other languages didn't go this route and
are reasonably ok, but there's no doubt the change made things more difficult.
--
Robin Becker
--
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