This is a request for enhancement. Please add platform independent UTF-16 string syntax (platform independent means not using wchar_t). The variability of the wchar_t type makes it unsuitable for UTF-16 strings. This request is to implement ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG14's technical report that is titled, "Extensions for the programming language C to support new character data types". A copy of the technical report can be found here: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1040.pdf
There are already several compilers that support the u"" string syntax. IBM Visual Age 7 and HP-UX aCC A.03.37 are two compilers that support the u"" syntax. Several other compilers already support UTF-16 strings through other types of syntax (using U"" or L""). gcc is one of the few compilers that has no UTF-16 syntax in the compiler. Our project doesn't need any of the functions or the UTF-32 type that are mentioned in the technical report. The ability to declare a UTF-16 string as u"This is my string with a \u03BC" would be very helpful to us. -- Summary: Add support for UTF-16 string syntax to C and C++ Product: gcc Version: unknown Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: enhancement Priority: P2 Component: c AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org ReportedBy: grhoten at jtcsv dot com CC: gcc-bugs at gcc dot gnu dot org http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20410