Bring wxMBConv Overview Background section from mid-90s to mid-2010s.

Update the Unicode introduction text to better reflect the reality of 2016, not 1996.
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Lauri Nurmi
2016-02-02 21:31:50 +02:00
parent d1944ad801
commit 7bcd9e05bd

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@@ -20,23 +20,25 @@ convert between Unicode and the variety of 8-bit encoding systems still in use.
@section overview_mbconv_need Background: The Need for Conversion @section overview_mbconv_need Background: The Need for Conversion
As programs are becoming more and more globalized, and users exchange documents As programs have become more and more globalized, and users are exchanging documents
across country boundaries as never before, applications increasingly need to across country boundaries as never before, applications need to take into account
take into account all the different character sets in use around the world. It the different letters and symbols in use around the world. It is no longer enough
is no longer enough to just depend on the default byte-sized character set that to just depend on the default byte-sized character sets that computers have
computers have traditionally used. traditionally used.
A few years ago, a solution was proposed: the Unicode standard. Able to contain The Unicode standard is the solution to most tasks involving processing and exchanging
the complete set of characters in use in one unified global coding system, it text in arbitrary languages. Unicode is able to contain the complete set of characters
would resolve the character set problems once and for all. used in all languages of the world in one unified global coding system.
But it hasn't happened yet, and the migration towards Unicode has created new Unicode text can be represented in various encodings, one of the most commonly used
challenges, resulting in "compatibility encodings" such as UTF-8. A large being UTF-8. UTF-8 along with UTF-7 are so-called "compatibility encodings", which
number of systems out there still depends on the old 8-bit encodings, hampered exist to facilitate the migration from old 8-bit encodings to Unicode. Despite the
by the huge amounts of legacy code still widely deployed. Even sending Unicode wide adoption of Unicode, a number of legacy systems out there still depends on the
data from one Unicode-aware system to another may need encoding to an 8-bit old 8-bit encodings.
multibyte encoding (UTF-7 or UTF-8 is typically used for this purpose), to pass
unhindered through any traditional transport channels. Sending Unicode data from one Unicode-aware system to another, e.g. through a network
connection or regular files, is typically done by encoding the data into a multibyte
encoding; usually UTF-8.
@section overview_mbconv_string Background: The wxString Class @section overview_mbconv_string Background: The wxString Class