On Monday 12 May 2008 13:54:45 Kuba Ober wrote:
> > 5. Strings: pushing unicode throughout a general purpose language is a
> > mistake, IMHO. This is why languages like Java and C# are so slow.
>
> Unicode by itself, when wider-than-byte encodings are used, adds "zero"
> runtime overhead; the only overhead is storage (2 or 4 bytes per
> character).

You cannot degrade memory consumption without also degrading performance. 
Moreover, there are hidden costs such as the added complexity in a lexer 
which potentially has 256x larger dispatch tables or an extra indirection for 
every byte read.

> Given that storage is cheap, I'd much rather have Unicode support than lack
> of it.

Sure. I don't mind unicode being available. I just don't want to have to use 
it myself because it is of no benefit to me (or many other people) but is a 
significant cost.

-- 
Dr Jon D Harrop, Flying Frog Consultancy Ltd.
http://www.ffconsultancy.com/products/?e