[MLton] WideChar

[Stephen Weeks]

> By convention, a Char.char is an "interpreted" 8bit value.  I would
> argue that what one really wants is a Word8.word reader to a
> WideChar.char reader.  A Word8.word is an "uniterpreted" 8bit value.
> When one wants to recover a 1.2 style decoding converter from a
> Char.char reader, it should first be sent through the Byte
> structure, which explicitly relinquishes the bit interpretation.

I like this way of thinking about it.

> The problem with both NONE and exceptions for 1.2 style converters is that
> the invalidity of the input stream is not discovered until sufficient
> input is read; i.e., not at the point where the conversion is applied.

Why does this matter, since these are streams?  I.E. who can tell that
we've looked a few characters ahead?


Can someone explain the difference between LargeChar and WideChar?