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I have made a mistake by developing a big Windows application that supports only ANSI. What are all the impacts, if my application doesn't support Unicode? Also, I am planning to migrate my code to Unicode. As, I am completely blocked due to the critical time factor of my task, could someone help me?

My target environment: XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (both 32 bit and 64 bit). It's enough if my application supports only English, but it should run anywhere in the world.

Note: I am not getting input from the user as strings.

dda
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2vision2
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  • String input from the user is one thing ... are you handling files that lie somewhere in the system, possibly in paths that contain characters that cannot be represented in the legacy codepage? Are you printing possibly localised messages somewhere which might result in endless streams of question marks? There are quite a few places where it can hurt you. – Joey Aug 03 '12 at 10:17

2 Answers2

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What are all the impacts, if my application doesn't support unicode?

It probably won't be able to deal with Unicode in

  • UI elements (no problem is your UI doesn't have any text entry facilities)
  • File paths
  • Text file content
  • Translation messages (no problem as you state English to be enough)
  • File formats like XML
  • Registry data (I think)

I won't claim to have listed all the impacts. I'll make this a community wiki, feel free to add to the list.

i am planning to migrate my code to Unicode? […] could some one help me?

The first sentence is not a question, is it? I doubt SO is the right place to search for people who'll help you porting a “big” application, except by answering specific questions whenever you get stuck.

MvG
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  • How about my application running in a machine where "Chinese" or "japanese" language set as default. My messages will be in different format am I rit? – 2vision2 Aug 03 '12 at 11:58
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    ASCII characters will display correctly, but you can test your application by changing the language used for non-Unicode programs. Change it in Control Panel, Region and Language, Administrative tab, Change system locale. – Mark Tolonen Aug 06 '12 at 04:55
  • Changing it in Control Panel, Region and Language, Administrative tab, Change system locale has been worked for me as @MarkTolonen said. Not bad to look at http://kb.parallels.com/en/122755 – QMaster Jan 03 '15 at 10:43
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I guess this MSDN link should help you understand better about using unicode. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688113.aspx

Also, refer to the w3c documentation at: http://www.w3.org/International/articles/unicode-migration/

They pretty much cover most of the answers, to your question.

askmish
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