From: Daniel Berger <djberg96@...>
Date: 2007-06-07T10:05:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Patching win32 ruby fopen/opendir/stat/rename/unlink to work with UTF8 paths?

Bill Kelly wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm using ruby in a Unicode-aware cross-platform application.
> We use UTF8, and on OS X unicode paths and filenames "just work",
> because the underlying fopen(), etc. calls understand UTF8.
> 
> Of course, things are not so nice on Windows.
> 
> I'm considering patching the stdlib calls used by ruby to use
> UTF8 behind-the-scenes on Windows.
> 
> Either by #define fopen(name, mode) utf8_fopen(name, mode)
> 
> Or by just changing ruby's use of fopen to utf8_fopen.  (And
> then make utf8_fopen simply defined back to fopen on non-
> Windows systems.)

You can look here for how to implement it in Windows. I have no idea 
what platforms support utf8_fopen and which don't.

http://www.koders.com/c/fid7D9DF187D3F371F71F7D6B1779A4EF93316425B9.aspx

> What I'm wondering is,
> 
> 1. Has anyone already tried this?  It seems to be it should
> be pretty straightforward.  Can anyone think of a reason why it might 
> not be easy?

Cross platform issues will be the number 1 issue I imagine. But, it's 
certainly possible.

> 2. Would anyone here be interested in such a patch?  I'm asking
> because I'd like to make the changes in the most harmonious way
> possible.  For example, would the #define fopen approach above be
> preferred?  Or changing fopen to utf8_fopen?

I vote that you write it and submit it. It may or may not be accepted, 
but you can at least try. :)

Regards,

Dan