[Development] QUtf8String{, View}

[Matthew Woehlke]

On 25/05/2020 07.37, Edward Welbourne wrote:
> I would just call it QUtf8View, since (see below) I don't see value in a
> separate QUtf8String for it to be a view into

On the one hand...

std::string_view is not a view into a std::string. A std::string is a 
*container* for text, a std::string_view is a *view* for text. They both 
have 'string' in their name because they both deal with text, not 
because a std::string_view is a view of a std::string. Similarly, a 
QStringView may or may not be a view of a QString. Thus, it does not 
follow that having a QUtf8StringView in any way implies relation to, or 
existence of, a QUtf8String.

On the other hand, "Utf8String" is arguably redundant. But so is 
"Latin1String", which we already have.

I think, for the sake of existing precedent, QUtf8StringView is the 
correct name. If you are under the (mistaken) impression that an 
XStringView implies being a view of an XString, well, sorry, but that's 
just not the case, for any value of 'X' ('std::', 'Q', 'QUtf8', ...).

On a different note, if we *had* QUtf8String and something like 
QAnyString, it might help with a migration path by which we eventually 
rename QString to QUtf16String (likely with an alias initially) and 
eventually make QString an alias for QUtf8String instead.

-- 
Matthew