How to write wide char string literals?

From	Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c++
Subject	How to write wide char string literals?
Date	2021-06-30 07:57 +0000
Organization	Aioe.org NNTP Server
Message-ID	<sbh84o$m8t$1@gioia.aioe.org> (permalink)

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Character encoding was a problem in the 1960's, and it's still a problem
today, no matter how much computers advance. Sheesh.

Problem is, how to reliably write wide char string literals that contain
non-ascii characters?

Suppose you write for example this:

    const wchar_t* str = L"???";

In the *source code* that string literal may be eg. UTF-8 encoded. However,
the compiler needs to convert it to wide chars.

Problem is, how does the compiler know which encoding is being used in
that 8-bit string literal in the source code, in order for it to convert
it properly to wide chars?

Some compilers may assume it's UTF-8 encoded source code. Others may
assume it's ISO-Latin-1 encoded (I'm looking at you, Visual Studio).
Obviously the end result will be garbage if the wrong assumption is made.

In most compilers (such as Visual Studio) you can specify which encoding
to assume for source files, but this has to be done at the project
settings level. I don't think there's any way to specify the encoding
in the source code itself.

What does the C++ standard say? Does it say that source code files are
always UTF-8 encoded, or is it up to the implementation? I assume that if
it's the latter, the standard doesn't provide any mechanism to specify
which encoding is being used. Or does it?

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How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-06-30 07:57 +0000
  Re: How to write wide char string literals? Kli-Kla-Klawitter <kliklaklawitter69@gmail.com> - 2021-06-30 10:05 +0200
    Re: How to write wide char string literals? Ralf Goertz <me@myprovider.invalid> - 2021-06-30 10:30 +0200
      Re: How to write wide char string literals? Kli-Kla-Klawitter <kliklaklawitter69@gmail.com> - 2021-06-30 12:37 +0200
        Re: How to write wide char string literals? Ralf Goertz <me@myprovider.invalid> - 2021-07-01 09:19 +0200
          Re: How to write wide char string literals? Kli-Kla-Klawitter <kliklaklawitter69@gmail.com> - 2021-07-01 11:10 +0200
            Re: How to write wide char string literals? Ralf Goertz <me@myprovider.invalid> - 2021-07-01 11:36 +0200
              Re: How to write wide char string literals? Kli-Kla-Klawitter <kliklaklawitter69@gmail.com> - 2021-07-01 16:17 +0200
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2021-07-01 10:13 -0700
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Kli-Kla-Klawitter <kliklaklawitter69@gmail.com> - 2021-07-01 19:27 +0200
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2021-07-01 11:21 -0700
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Real Troll <real.troll@trolls.com> - 2021-07-01 18:45 +0000
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Kli-Kla-Klawitter <kliklaklawitter69@gmail.com> - 2021-07-02 10:03 +0200
              Re: How to write wide char string literals? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2021-07-02 02:31 -0700
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? MrSpud_oyCn@92wvlb1hltq4dhc.gov.uk - 2021-07-02 09:38 +0000
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Paavo Helde <myfirstname@osa.pri.ee> - 2021-07-02 13:52 +0300
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? MrSpud_zg8yg@nx8574z6ey2rc0y563k5i2.net - 2021-07-02 12:53 +0000
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach@gmail.com> - 2021-07-02 15:22 +0200
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Paavo Helde <myfirstname@osa.pri.ee> - 2021-07-02 17:32 +0300
  Re: How to write wide char string literals? Ralf Goertz <me@myprovider.invalid> - 2021-06-30 10:08 +0200
  Re: How to write wide char string literals? MrSpud_r5j@ywn9entw2s.org - 2021-06-30 08:39 +0000
    Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-06-30 10:52 +0000
      Re: How to write wide char string literals? MrSpud_3u59h8@0c9tv3nddl090w2ynhm.gov - 2021-06-30 11:28 +0000
        Re: How to write wide char string literals? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2021-06-30 14:01 +0200
  Re: How to write wide char string literals? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach@gmail.com> - 2021-06-30 10:55 +0200
    Re: How to write wide char string literals? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2021-06-30 11:23 +0200
  Re: How to write wide char string literals? Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2021-06-30 06:51 -0400
    Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-06-30 11:09 +0000
      Re: How to write wide char string literals? Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2021-06-30 07:35 -0400
  Re: How to write wide char string literals? Paavo Helde <myfirstname@osa.pri.ee> - 2021-06-30 14:03 +0300
    Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-06-30 11:13 +0000
      Re: How to write wide char string literals? Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2021-06-30 07:39 -0400
        Re: How to write wide char string literals? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach@gmail.com> - 2021-06-30 13:50 +0200
          Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-06-30 14:19 -0400
            Re: How to write wide char string literals? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach@gmail.com> - 2021-07-01 13:31 +0200
        Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-07-01 04:42 +0000
          Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-07-01 10:58 -0400
            Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-07-02 05:26 +0000
              Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-07-02 01:44 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Bo Persson <bo@bo-persson.se> - 2021-07-02 08:33 +0200
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-07-02 11:52 +0000
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-07-02 16:15 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach@gmail.com> - 2021-07-03 03:30 +0200
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-07-03 00:44 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach@gmail.com> - 2021-07-03 13:31 +0200
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-07-03 08:44 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach@gmail.com> - 2021-07-03 16:28 +0200
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2021-07-03 11:48 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-07-08 15:56 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-07-03 16:59 +0000
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-07-03 17:49 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-07-08 08:11 +0000
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-07-08 05:52 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-07-03 06:59 +0000
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2021-07-03 09:03 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Chris Vine <chris@cvine--nospam--.freeserve.co.uk> - 2021-07-03 14:23 +0100
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-07-03 17:06 +0000
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2021-07-03 14:06 -0400
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-07-08 08:13 +0000
                Re: How to write wide char string literals? "Alf P. Steinbach" <alf.p.steinbach@gmail.com> - 2021-07-02 15:37 +0200
      Re: How to write wide char string literals? Manfred <noname@add.invalid> - 2021-06-30 16:54 +0200
      Re: How to write wide char string literals? Paavo Helde <myfirstname@osa.pri.ee> - 2021-06-30 17:56 +0300
  Re: How to write wide char string literals? Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2021-06-30 09:22 -0700
  Re: How to write wide char string literals? Christian Gollwitzer <auriocus@gmx.de> - 2021-07-01 07:19 +0200
    Re: How to write wide char string literals? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2021-07-01 10:29 +0200
      Re: How to write wide char string literals? Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2021-07-01 08:44 +0000
        Re: How to write wide char string literals? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2021-07-01 12:58 +0200
      Re: How to write wide char string literals? Christian Gollwitzer <auriocus@gmx.de> - 2021-07-01 14:01 +0200
        Re: How to write wide char string literals? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2021-07-01 14:57 +0200
    Re: How to write wide char string literals? Manfred <noname@add.invalid> - 2021-07-01 15:44 +0200

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