printf a wchar_t?

[Keizer E G]

egr at contact.uucp (Gordan Palameta) writes:

>Can you print a wchar_t using printf and some sort of % format?
>Is this a reasonable thing to want to do at all?
>K&R II and H&S seem to say nothing about this...

When X3J11 added wchar_t's to the C standard the committee knew that the
standard would not offer the complete range of functionality. One of
the criteria for adding features to the standard was "add only features
that have been implemented in one or more compilers and used". X3J11
was aware of the fact that there was not sufficient experience with
wchar_t's to do add the full range of functionality.

WG14, X3J11's counterpart on the international level, is considering
a proposal by the Japanese to extend the functionality of wchar_t's.
One part of this proposal will be a printf for wchar_t's. Due to the slow
process of standardization it will be some time before this proposal
reaches the status of official addendum to the C standard.

Ed Keizer
Member of WG14.

This article does present my personal views, not those of X3J11 or WG14.