Re: is it convenient to enable std::string using wxUSE_STD_STRING_CONV_IN_WXSTRING ?

On Mon, 5 Aug 2024 23:51:44 -0700 (PDT) Rossano Paris wrote:

RP> Talking about the wx version series 3.2, I'd like to understand whether 
RP> enabling the implicit conversion to std::string in wxString could results 
RP> in an advantage or not.
RP> Containers and IO streams options are already added as default 
RP> but wxUSE_STD_STRING_CONV_IN_WXSTRING.
RP> 
RP> When should be convenient to enable std:string ?
RP> Are there different considerations to know regarding differents OSs?

 There are several considerations:

1. Implicit conversions are dangerous, but can be convenient, so it's up
   to you to balance the advantages against the risks:

 - Conversion to std::string is especially dangerous as it can result in
   data loss if the current encoding is not UTF-8 (which can be the case
   under any platform in theory, but in practice is only going to happen
   under Windows), so it's strongly recommended to disable this one by
   defining wxNO_UNSAFE_WXSTRING_CONV, see this old blog post for more
   details: https://www.wxwidgets.org/blog/2020/08/implicit_explicit_encoding/

 - Conversion to std::wstring is fine, though, so if you work with APIs
   taking std::wstring (which is relative rare IME), then it can be nice
   to have it.

2. Enabling implicit conversions to std::[w]string disables implicit
   conversions to "const char*" and "const wchar_t*". This is a good
   thing, in theory, as these conversions are even more dangerous, but
   it can result in many (like hundreds or thousands of) errors in the
   existing code bases as this is something that is used a lot. So you
   may not be able to easily fix compilation of your code after enabling
   wxUSE_STD_STRING_CONV_IN_WXSTRING -- but if you can, or if you're
   writing something new, you should consider doing it.

 Hope this helps,
VZ

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