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Currently there are defines like BOOST_LOCALE_ENABLE_CHAR16_T to enable char16_t and similar for others.

I find that a bit... difficult. We have BOOST_NO_CHAR16_T and similar to detect the availability automatically. So the defines are usually not required when that is used.

And the major obstacle: The library must be build with the same value (defined / not-defined) of those BOOST_LOCALE_ENABLE_CHAR*_T defines or the locale facets will have undefined IDs. But there is no way to know how the library was built.

Using the availability-test-macros one can assume, that if the library was built with a recent-ish compiler/standard then those types can be used.

So @artyom-beilis : Switch to using BOOST_NO_CHAR16_T and the like?

So @artyom-beilis : Switch to using BOOST_NO_CHAR16_T and the like?

It is problem. And I'll explain.

I have added char16_t/char32_t experimental support under assumption it is going to be useful. In reality it never worked. There are two reasons

1. In order to char16/32 locales to work need at least most basic facets support from std::locale facets, for example there should be stuff like std::ctype<char16_t>::id exists (instantiated) somewhere in standard library. It never happened, also not sure it have ever been requirement from standard.
2. Standard library facets like ctype or numpunct, collate in all existing implementations use support that comes from standard C library. For example on Linux/Mac the libstdc++ locales use C locale_l functions/posix locale that exists in the library. For same reason under BSD and MinGW32 C++ locales aren't really supported. So, if you look into C++ library it can use some OS localisation support for Windows or Linux APIs. It is defined from wide char and char but have never been defined for char16_t or char32_t. So there is simply no streight forward way for library vendors to implement one, especially for "non-native" character width (16 for linux/32 for windows).

So basically even I tried to implement it, the support was VERY limited and never worked. That is why you just can't use BOOST_NO_CHAR16_T since even if char16_t or char32_t are defined and work as separate type it does not guarantee that there is any support of it on library level.

Finally I think it can be safely said that there chars aren't supported and will not be in near future.

Now regarding compilation. It is Boost problem in general. Virtually every non-negligible library can be binary broken with some defines (even stuff like smart pointers).

Since Boost decided not to use generated headers it is impossible to do this sync without systematic policy change in Boost. It isn't Boost.Locale's problem but rather major Boost design flaw.

Finally I think it can be safely said that there chars aren't supported and will not be in near future.

Now regarding compilation. It is Boost problem in general. Virtually every non-negligible library can be binary broken with some defines (even stuff like smart pointers).

If it never worked, is not expected to work and may cause problems, then let's remove that stuff. Less code to maintain, less trouble for users.

Finally I think it can be safely said that there chars aren't supported and will not be in near future. Now regarding compilation. It is Boost problem in general. Virtually every non-negligible library can be binary broken with some defines (even stuff like smart pointers).

If it never worked, is not expected to work and may cause problems, then let's remove that stuff. Less code to maintain, less trouble for users.

I have no problem with it.

Upon closer inspection and after the recent issue I think the better way forward is to enable those templates (unconditionally, i.e. remove the dependency on BOOST_LOCALE_ENABLE_CHAR16_T and the like)

Additionally it also makes sense to enable char8_t when available.

As seen in #190 users may expect to simply work with "type-encoded-UTF-encoding" when they want. And it is hard to argue why e.g. from_utf<char8_t> or to_utf<char16_t> shouldn't work while e.g. utf8_codecvt<char16_t> and utf_to_utf<char, char16_t> work