Re: Wide character support?

[Christopher Faylor <cgf-no-personal-reply-please at cygwin dot com>]

On Sat, May 28, 2005 at 11:23:51AM -0400, Beman Dawes wrote:
>"Artem B. Bityuckiy" <dedekind@yandex.ru> wrote in message 42982EB2.40507@yandex.ru">news:42982EB2.40507@yandex.ru...
>> Beman Dawes wrote:
>>>I'd like to be able to use the C++ standard library std::wstring with
>>>Cygwin.
>>>
>>>What would be involved in adding wide character support to newlib?  In
>>>a cgywin mailing list posting Christopher Faylor indicated that this is
>>>what is needed.
>>
>>2 years ago I worked on this issue.  You need NLS support in Newlib to
>>make use of C++ wstring stuff.
>>
>>What I did: 1.  Ported the Iconv library to Newlib.  Iconv is the heart
>>of NLS.  It is currently in Newlib CVS.  Perhaps, it isn't ideal, but
>>it worked.  2.  Implemented mblen() and friends.  3.  Implemented
>>wc<->mb convertion functions (mbtowc(), mbstowcs(), etc).  4.  Added
>>full wide-char support to vscanf()/vprintf() serites (%S, etc).
>>
>>2,3,4 is not in the Newlib repositiry.  But it worked quite stably
>>AFAIR.
>>
>>I'm not involved in the area anymore and I have no energy to complete
>>the work, sorry.  I may share what I've done with you if you wish to
>>implement the NLS stuff for Newlib.
>
>I don't know yet.  I'm trying to get an idea of how much effort would
>be involved, and if the Newlib folks are interested.

I'm sure that Jeff wouldn't refuse a patch which improved newlib
functionality.  To be safe, however, you could make the option
configurable with a "configure --wide-char" or something.  There's
probably an existing configure option that could be pressed into
service, in fact.

cgf