microsoft / microsoft/STL

`<string>`: `char_traits` specializations for "exotic" chars

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#5,311 7 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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enhancement
Dominant language
C++
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

libc++ has removed the char_traits base template.

... it must be noted that the Standard only specifies specializations of char_traits for char, char8_t, char16_t, char32_t and wchar_t. However, before this patch, we would provide a base template that accepted anything, and as a result code like std::basic_string<long long> would compile but nobody knows what it really does. It basically compiles by accident.

Should the MSVC STL adopt the same changes? This would greatly help cross-platform developers. Louis also has a great point about correctness.

Xcode 16.3 release notes.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No MSVC STL file, test, or entry point is named in the issue. Start by reviewing the linked libc++ change and the Xcode 16.3 release notes, then locate the corresponding char_traits implementation and tests in this repository. Done means reaching a documented decision and validating equivalent behavior for unsupported character types across the relevant tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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