Re: Why std::string is used for the file paths?

[Toralf Lund <toralf procaptura com>]

Roman Yazmin wrote:
>     Gtkmm doesn't have its own "string" class. It has a special class
>     for UTF-8 encoded strings. That's what Glib::ustring is. 
>
>
> And  all library use this special class for UTF-8 encoded strings. And 
> must be used for file paths also.
> If not, please show me the benefits of using std::string for file 
> paths instead of ustring.
I think you are looking at this from the wrong side, so as to speak.

As far as I understand, Glib::ustring is not intended as a "separate" 
string class. It may be implemented somewhat separately for some obscure 
technical reason, but you should view it as a specialisation of 
std::string with additional support for UTF-8 encoding and variable 
length characters.

So, generally std::string is used all over the place. In some places, a 
specialised class with support for a special case of a string, i.e. an 
UTF-8 encoded text, is needed. This is where Glib::ustring is used. But 
Glib::ustring "is a" std::string, at least conceptually. Other places, 
strings are just general character sequences, so the generic string 
class is used directly. std::string, that is.

Also using the current Glib::ustring implementation for the more general 
strings may work from a technical perspective, but it would break with 
the normal rules for object orientation, and Glib::ustring *might* also 
be implemented in such a way that non-UTF-8 strings would simply be 
rejected.

- Toralf