From: Phlip <phlip2005@...>
Date: 2007-09-17T21:52:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Unicode

>> I hate to discuss something related to the development timeline, I know
>> its tenable, but When will it be reasonable to expect Unicode support
>> from Ruby?
>
> I was just looking at the source code for 1.8.6 this weekend.   The C
> syntax that's being used is pre-ANSI-C (which means in 1988, it was
> "old" syntax).

Apples and oranges. Unicode libraries like iconv use C linkage, so they can 
bond with most C implementations regardless of their compliance. (C linkage 
is very weak and simplistic.) All Cs can handle 8-bit strings, and can be 
programmed to use 16-bit strings, which are the requirements for UTF-8 and 
UTF-16.

Like most languages, Ruby's source is in a primitive form of C to maximize 
the number of compilers, and hence the number of platforms and hardwares, 
that it runs on. I would suspect - unless Matz is an even greater genius 
than average - that Ruby's C style has been carefully retrofitted, after the 
language passed its first few version ticks.

> Rotsa Ruck.

Racial slur noted.

-- 
  Phlip