assignments

[Alex Shinn]

Hi,

Just writing to say that my copyright assignments have been sent in
and accepted for work on Guile.  No, I've not fallen off the face of
the Earth, just the other side of it, Tokyo[1] to be precise.

In light of discussions regarding the performance and threading
complexities of string representations, I don't think the
proof-of-concept work I did with utf8 would be of any use (apart from
being a learning experience).  It seems a hybrid solution is
inevitable.

FWIW, Re: the virtualizing string interface thread, I don't think it
would provide enough benefit for the complexity - if we stick to a
fixed number of representations, implementing compiler optimizations
for strings should be simpler.  So Dirk's original idea of separate
string content objects with different encodings (including at least
utf32 and utf8) would be what I'd work towards.

Unfortunately, (though I really need multibyte character support)
since I've just moved (and don't really speak Japanese), started a new
job, and don't yet have a stable apartment or Internet connection
outside of work, I won't have time to continue with this for the near
future.  :-(

Footnotes: 
[1]  Any Guilers in the area?  Drop me an email off list.

-- 
Alex