[Mono-list] A couple of questions...

[Kevin Huber]

A Rafael D Teixeira wrote:
> In truth itīs more complex than that: the compiler/runtime should 
> "OPTIMIZE" the strings, choosing for each one what is the encoding that 
> generates the smallest representation, and then tagging it with which 
> encoding it used.


But optimize for what, space or time?

UTF-8 is space efficient, assuming most characters are 7 bit ASCII, but,
for example, it must be decoded for string comparisons.  It doesn't seem 
fair to have memory-constrained devices impose a speed penalty on 
computers with sufficient memory to store 16 bit characters.

I think the best thing to do for now is to do the simplest 
implementation first: have the runtime  use UCS-2, and to worry about 
small devices at a later time once the basics are covered.  Mono for 
PDAs should probably be a separate subproject.

-Kevin