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Re: Why No Supplemental Characters In Character Literals?

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On 02/04/2011 01:59 AM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> In message<iig6j2$dul$2@news.albasani.net>, Lew wrote:
>
>> On 02/04/2011 12:59 AM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>>
>>> Why was it decreed in the language spec that characters beyond U+FFFF are
>>> not allowed in character literals, when they are allowed everywhere else
>>> (in string literals, in the program text, in character and string values
>>> etc)?
>>
>> Because a 'char' type holds only 16 bits.
>
> No it doesn’t. Otherwise you wouldn’t be allowed supplementary characters in
> character and string values. Which you are.

The JLS clearly states that a char is an unsigned 16-bit value. Non-BMP 
Unicode characters cannot fit in a single unsigned 16-bit value. Where 
other literals compile down, you can use these non-BMP characters 
because, e.g., Strings are not individual 16-bit values but an array of 
them, and can thus safely hold a pair of them.

-- 
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not 
tried it. -- Donald E. Knuth

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Re: Why No Supplemental Characters In Character Literals? Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2011-02-04 01:34 -0500
  Re: Why No Supplemental Characters In Character Literals? markspace <nospam@nowhere.com> - 2011-02-04 11:04 -0800
  Re: Why No Supplemental Characters In Character Literals? Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2011-02-04 08:04 -0500

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