anyone here use UTF-16?

[Skaperen]

for the utf encodings there is more to it than just the "bit work" to derive the code values. they are intended for use in particular data architectures. i do kn Microsoft uses UTF-16 for file names, and have architectured things to use two bytes per character. so there is a good fit for UTF-16. i don't know how they deal with UTF-16's byte order mechanisms. i have also not yet determined what they do with data. i do know that data i get from people using various Microsoft systems that has Unicode in it comes across in UTF-8 in one byte form consistently. but that doesn't tell me how they store such data in files.

but you can store UTF-16 in 32 bits . you can store UTF-8 in 32 bits, too. but i doubt they store file data that way.

what i mean in my question is whether anyone deliberately works with those UTF-16 values directly in their their programming, a opposed to merely setting parameters to let something else deal with what is or is not a 16-bit or dual octet world.

IMHO, we can do without UTF-16 because there is very little history of need or use cases to put characters in 16-bit units. and UTF-16 comes with baggage ... some code points that are reserved in various ways for UTF-16. UTF-8 didn't do that. if UTF-16 had never come about the entire Unicode code space could be used as Unicode specifies, and it all can be transported in UTF-8.

there are plenty of use cases for UTF-8 that UTF-16 cannot meet. but are there an use cases for UTF-16 that UTF-8 cannot meet?

i want to have a campaign to abandon UTF-16, including such things as eventually opening up for assignment, code points that UTF-16 has caused to be reserved, like the surrogate pairs.