View Poll Results: What do you prefer?

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  • Unicode

    4 36.36%
  • ASCII

    7 63.64%

Thread: Unicode/ASCII

  1. #1
    x4000 Ruski's Avatar
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    Unicode/ASCII

    I've just read a part of this tutorial: http://sunlightd.virtualave.net/Windows/GUI/Intro.html but I can't understand what is that _T for.. Is it necessary NOW?
    It says it's Unicode.. is it true that it's better than ASCII? Most of the programs use ASCII now..
    what does signature stand for?

  2. #2
    julie lexx... btq's Avatar
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    unicode is for multilingual purposes, ie, every character has it's own value and it's supposed to be the new standard..

    _T() just formats hte ASCII string into a unicode string...
    ie, _T("hello") is a unicode string that reads "hello"...

    hope this is an answer?
    /btq

  3. #3
    Code Monkey Davros's Avatar
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    The results of a poll will surely depend on who you ask:

    Ask 100 ignorant English speakers, like me, and we'll all vote for ASCII. (Why can't the whole world just use English!

    Ask 100 chinese programmers and I'm sure the answer would be different.
    OS: Windows XP
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  4. #4
    x4000 Ruski's Avatar
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    Well.. but I've never seen anybody in tutorials & stuff using _T("Hello"); .. that's confusing.. why not just "Hello" ??
    what does signature stand for?

  5. #5
    x4000 Ruski's Avatar
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    Hey! By the way.. where can I get a resource editor (not vc++ ... preferably a plugin for dev-C++ 5b)
    what does signature stand for?

  6. #6
    Skunkmeister Stoned_Coder's Avatar
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    If you write programs for windows you should be aware of unicode.
    Windows 95,98 and me all run on ascii
    windows 2000 family runs on unicode.

    The _T macro will compile your strings as ascii if _UNICODE is not defined. If it is then _T macro will compile your strings as unicode.
    Petzold in his book Programming windows devotes a whole chapter to this as he feels it is so important. You will get a far better explanation of this by reading that chapter than i can give you here.
    Free the weed!! Class B to class C is not good enough!!
    And the FAQ is here :- http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/smartfaq.cgi

  7. #7
    I lurk
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    Whether you use it or not... the Windows NT platforms (NT/2K/XP) convert your ASCII strings into unicode strings for internal use anyway. This will give you a performance hit, so why not just start with Unicode in the first place?

  8. #8
    Lead Moderator kermi3's Avatar
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    This is really a General Discussions thread. Therefore it has been moved there....

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  9. #9
    x4000 Ruski's Avatar
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    If I work with Unicode.. will it work in 9x ?
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  10. #10
    Just because ygfperson's Avatar
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    it depends on the application... probably.

  11. #11
    x4000 Ruski's Avatar
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    Application??

  12. #12
    . Driveway's Avatar
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    program
    executable
    ...

  13. #13
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    In short
    NO!
    That's why you use generic functions like _tcslen(), TEXT("hello") and generic types like TCHAR which will compile to either Unicode or ASCII depending on whether UNICODE is #defined. Windows9x does not support Unicode. Windows NT/2K/XP supports both to some extent, and Windows CE only supports Unicode.

  14. #14
    x4000 Ruski's Avatar
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    But why isn't ASCII working on NT/2k/XP ??
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  15. #15
    Redundantly Redundant RoD's Avatar
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    >But why isn't ASCII working on NT/2k/XP ??

    it does work , thats what i currently program in and i'm on xp.


    So, is that why, in .NET, it has a _T main or whatever instead of a blank project? to encourage unicode? I am a newbie so i could go either way, i think it might just be more confusing not to go with ASCII.

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