UCS-2 --> UTF-16, Part 0: The intro, sans content

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2008/08/30 10:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2008/08/30/8907667.aspx

Okay, this blog is going to serve as a warning that a whole bunch of blogs in this Blog are about to happen about a particular topic.

The topic is one I have kind of talked about before.

The difference in software between UCS-2 and UTF-16, and what is involved with migrating code that "covers" the former to code that covers the latter.

Now the reason that this difference is interesting is just about everyone who is asking the questions (and there seem to be a lot of them, especially these last couple of weeks!), is handicapped by several issues, from incorrect assumptions about what works for them today to inaccurate picture of what they need to do to fix the problems to inappropriate plans for the scope of the work to plan.

It's a mess, it really is. I'm actually even going go change some of the content of a training presentation that is coming up to cover this topic a bit more, too.

Maybe I'll even mention this series! :-)

Anyway, consider this the content-free introduction to this exciting series.

If you are one of the people currently looking at this problem and are doing so with the unreserved joy one might feel for the removal of an impacted wisdom tooth, then this series is here especially for you! :-)

 

All of the characters in Unicode are taking the long weekend off. I'll see if some of the non-characters stuck in town might want to sponsor....

# John Cowan on 30 Aug 2008 2:18 PM:

Waiting with bait on my breath, Michael.

# Michael S. Kaplan on 30 Aug 2008 7:52 PM:

You might want to brush your teeth for the benefit of those around you. :-)

# Adam Twardoch on 31 Aug 2008 5:20 AM:

Please do mention UCS-4 aka UTF-32 and UTF-8 while you're at it, and please make sure that UCS-2 should be forbidden :)

A.

# Mike on 2 Sep 2008 2:34 PM:

If you do expand the scope it might be a good time to let people in on variation selectors as well.

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referenced by

2009/06/29 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 11: Turning it up to Eleven!

2009/06/10 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 10: Variation[ Selector] on a theme...

2008/12/16 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 9: The torrents of breaking CharNext/CharPrev

2008/12/09 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 8: It's the end of the string as we know it (and I feel ellipses)

2008/12/04 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 7: If it makes the SQL Server columns too small then it made the Oracle columns either too smallER or too smallEST

2008/11/24 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 6: An exercise left for whoever needs some exercise

2008/10/15 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 5: What's on the Next Level?

2008/10/06 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 4: Talking about the ask

2008/09/18 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 3: It starts with cursor movement (where MS simultaneously gets better and worse)

2008/09/15 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 2: A&P of a 'linguistic character'

2008/09/08 UCS-2 to UTF-16, Part 1: Getting the obvious out of the way

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