[M3devel] Simple change to WIDECHAR type

[Tony Hosking]

As far as I know, WIDECHAR was simply for the CM3 JVM to support Java char which is 16-bit.

On Jun 30, 2012, at 1:24 PM, Mika Nystrom wrote:

> 
> =?utf-8?Q?Dragi=C5=A1a_Duri=C4=87?= writes:
> ...
>> 
>> Solution:
>> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>> 
>> * Redefine WIDECHAR to hold at least 20 bit values, or create UNICHAR or =
>> GLYPH (and leave WIDECHAR as it is for vertical compatibility) so we can =
>> hold unencoded Unicode characters in scalar values in our Modula-3 =
>> programs, while preserving their properties.
>> * Implement properties, relations and methods defined for  Unicode. With =
>> ASCII, numeric order is everything. With Unicode - it is not. This is =
>> probably very big project but we can start somewhere, and let interested =
>> parties build on it. Dirk Muysers did work in this regard already.
>> * Whoever thinks we don't need this and our "tradition" and "legacy" are =
>> important, please read this: =
>> http://unicode.org/standard/WhatIsUnicode.html .
>> 
>> dd
> 
> Given what you have said about the near-uselessness of WIDECHAR, does anything
> actually use it much?  What breaks if it is redefined to be the same as, say,
> INTEGER?  (Or Word.T)
> 
> CHAR is quite useful for processing 7-bit ASCII, and it would be lovely if
> that could go back to using the SRC data structures.  For people who do stuff
> like write VLSI design tools... (probably many other large-scale applications
> would like it too).
> 
>   Mika