Use boost locale together with Firebreath

Question

I create a chrome extension using Firebreath: http://slimtext.org And I meet a problem: the extension does not support Chinese characters very well on Windows. After a lot of research I found this: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_50_0/libs/locale/doc/html/default_encoding_under_windows.html

I think the solution is to use boost/locale. But the https://github.com/firebreath/firebreath-boost project does not seem to contain boost/locale. The 1.50.0 branch contains newer boost than the master branch but neither of them contains boost/locale.

I tried to use external boost, or copy the locale code from external boost, but failed.(couldn't link to locale when doing make)

What's your suggestion? How can I Use boost locale together with Firebreath ?

Darrickdarrill

Answer 1

I failed to compile my Firebreath project with external Boost on Windows. And after a lot of investigation, I start to doubt that boost/locale is the key to my original problem: Chinese characters encoding problem.

Finally I resolved it without boost/locale:

1. use wstring instead of string whenever possible
2. you might have to write code separately for windows and other operating systems, example:

#ifdef _WIN32

    file.open(path.c_str()); //path is std::wstring

#else

    fs::path the_path(path);            
    file.open(the_path.generic_string().c_str());

#endif

Darrickdarrill

Note the firebreath functions FB::utf8_to_wstring and FB::wstring_to_utf8 – Wilscam

Answer 2

firebreath-boost is just a subset of the full boost. To use all of boost install boost manually and use system boost. see http://www.firebreath.org/display/documentation/Prep+Scripts

Wilscam

Thank you for replying. I tried to compile and install the newest boost 1.53.0 and follow the instructions you post. Without any luck. Is firebreath compatible with boost 1.53.0 ? – Darrickdarrill

You need to link boost system – Wilscam

Do you have plans to add locale into firebreath-boost project? Then I can get the project running just as before. Now I have to do a lot of debugging and configuring. (I still cannot get it work on Windows). I think locale is very important for i18n. Otherwise firebreath cannot support languages other than othose ascii ones. – Darrickdarrill

I have no such plans at present; I might look into it at some point – Wilscam

It turns out the problem is very complex and I am not sure whether boost/locale is the key or not. Finally I resolved my original issue without it. See my answer. – Darrickdarrill