TbUtf8: what changed

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Title: TbUtf8

New		Line
1	+	## About
2	+
3	+	TbUtf8 is a library to easily change UTF-8 encoded strings.
4	+
5	+	### Problem
6	+
7	+	With Lazarus (Free Pascal) the string UTF8 encoded. However, the "String" type is nothing more than a dynamic byte array. Length returns the number of bytes in the array but not the number of characters. With UTF8, a character can be 4 bytes long and even 7 bytes with combined characters. An example should illustrate this. 'Thomas' 6 characters, 6 bytes in size. 'Thömäs' 6 characters, 8 bytes in size.
8	+
9	+	### Solution
10	+
11	+	With TbUtf8 you can now easily change and search UTF8 strings with special and combined characters, such as "üäößẶặǺǻǼǽǞǟǍǎḂḃÞþÇçĆćĊċ...". Essentially, the library consists of a UTF8 string class (TIbUtf8).
12	+
13	+	### Benefits
14	+
15	+	- TIbUtf8 is a class type of TInterfacedObject and does not need to be cleaned up with free.
16	+	- All indexes are character based.
17	+	- All returned characters are of type String.
18	+	- Returns the number of characters in the string.
19	+	- Returns the number of bytes in the string.
20	+	- Delete characters or character groups.
21	+	- Insertion of characters and character groups.
22	+	- Appending characters and character groups.
23	+	- Reading / writing of characters and character groups.
24	+	- Read from file / write to a file.
25	+	- Read from stream / write to a stream.
26	+
27	+	### Disadvantage
28	+
29	+	- Since UTF8 does not have a constant offset from character to character, searching for characters is much more complex. Iterating over the characters is about 20 times slower than with the string. (Comfort has its price)
30	+	- Slightly more memory is required.
31	+
32	+	### Example
33	+
34	+	``` pascal
35	+	var
36	+	u: IbUtf8;
37	+	i: Integer;
38	+	begin
39	+	u:= TIbUtf8.Create('Thömäß');
40	+	for i:= 1 to u.NumberOfChars do begin
41	+	case u.Chars[i] of
42	+	'ö': u.Chars[i]:= 'o';
43	+	'ä': u.Chars[i]:= 'a';
44	+	'ß': u.Chars[i]:= 's';
45	+	end;
46	+	end;
47	+	if u.Text = 'Thomas' then begin
48	+	WriteLn('That''s right!');
49	+	end;
50	+	end.
51	+	```
52	+
53	+	## Download
54	+
55	+	- GitLab repository: [FpTuxe/TbUtf8](https://gitlab.com/FpTuxe/tbutf8)
56	+	- Git clone:
57	+
58	+	``` bash
59	+	git clone https://gitlab.com/FpTuxe/tbutf8.git
60	+	```
61	+
62	+	## Installation
63	+
64	+	Variant 1
65	+	Start Lazarus and open your project.
66	+
67	+	Lazarus-\>File-\>Open your workspace/tbutf8/src/tb_utf8.pas
68	+
69	+	Lazarus-\>Project-\>Add Editor File to Project
70	+
71	+	Variant 2
72	+	Start Lazarus and open your project.
73	+
74	+	Lazarus-\>Package-\>Open Package File (.lpk) your workspace/tbutf8/src/tbutf8.lpk
75	+
76	+	Now, click Use-\>Add to Project
77	+
78	+	Close then Package window.
79	+
80	+	## Functional Description
81	+
82	+	The functional description, you can found under the project folder "doc/".
83	+
84	+	---
85	+	From the Free Pascal wiki, page "TbUtf8", as it stood on 2022-04-15 after a change by Alextpp, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's [[Licensing]] page. If you have concerns about this material, [message the admin](/wiki-contact).

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