-This function will convert to UTF-8 (and not warn) even code points that aren't
-legal Unicode or are problematic, unless C<flags> contains one or more of the
-following flags:
-
-If C<uv> is a Unicode surrogate code point and UNICODE_WARN_SURROGATE is set,
-the function will raise a warning, provided UTF8 warnings are enabled. If instead
-UNICODE_DISALLOW_SURROGATE is set, the function will fail and return NULL.
-If both flags are set, the function will both warn and return NULL.
-
-The UNICODE_WARN_NONCHAR and UNICODE_DISALLOW_NONCHAR flags
-affect how the function handles a Unicode non-character. And likewise, the
-UNICODE_WARN_SUPER and UNICODE_DISALLOW_SUPER flags affect the handling of
-code points that are
-above the Unicode maximum of 0x10FFFF. Code points above 0x7FFF_FFFF (which are
-even less portable) can be warned and/or disallowed even if other above-Unicode
-code points are accepted, by the UNICODE_WARN_FE_FF and UNICODE_DISALLOW_FE_FF
-flags.
-
-And finally, the flag UNICODE_WARN_ILLEGAL_INTERCHANGE selects all four of the
-above WARN flags; and UNICODE_DISALLOW_ILLEGAL_INTERCHANGE selects all four
-DISALLOW flags.
+If C<flags> is 0, this function accepts any UV as input, but very high code
+points (above C<IV_MAX> for the platform) will raise a deprecation warning.
+This is typically 0x7FFF_FFFF in a 32-bit word.
+
+Specifying C<flags> can further restrict what is allowed and not warned on, as
+follows:
+
+If C<uv> is a Unicode surrogate code point and C<UNICODE_WARN_SURROGATE> is set,
+the function will raise a warning, provided UTF8 warnings are enabled. If
+instead C<UNICODE_DISALLOW_SURROGATE> is set, the function will fail and return
+NULL. If both flags are set, the function will both warn and return NULL.
+
+Similarly, the C<UNICODE_WARN_NONCHAR> and C<UNICODE_DISALLOW_NONCHAR> flags
+affect how the function handles a Unicode non-character.
+
+And likewise, the C<UNICODE_WARN_SUPER> and C<UNICODE_DISALLOW_SUPER> flags
+affect the handling of code points that are above the Unicode maximum of
+0x10FFFF. Languages other than Perl may not be able to accept files that
+contain these.
+
+The flag C<UNICODE_WARN_ILLEGAL_INTERCHANGE> selects all three of
+the above WARN flags; and C<UNICODE_DISALLOW_ILLEGAL_INTERCHANGE> selects all
+three DISALLOW flags.
+
+Code points above 0x7FFF_FFFF (2**31 - 1) were never specified in any standard,
+so using them is more problematic than other above-Unicode code points. Perl
+invented an extension to UTF-8 to represent the ones above 2**36-1, so it is
+likely that non-Perl languages will not be able to read files that contain
+these that written by the perl interpreter; nor would Perl understand files
+written by something that uses a different extension. For these reasons, there
+is a separate set of flags that can warn and/or disallow these extremely high
+code points, even if other above-Unicode ones are accepted. These are the
+C<UNICODE_WARN_ABOVE_31_BIT> and C<UNICODE_DISALLOW_ABOVE_31_BIT> flags. These
+are entirely independent from the deprecation warning for code points above
+C<IV_MAX>. On 32-bit machines, it will eventually be forbidden to have any
+code point that needs more than 31 bits to represent. When that happens,
+effectively the C<UNICODE_DISALLOW_ABOVE_31_BIT> flag will always be set on
+32-bit machines. (Of course C<UNICODE_DISALLOW_SUPER> will treat all
+above-Unicode code points, including these, as malformations; and
+C<UNICODE_WARN_SUPER> warns on these.)
+
+On EBCDIC platforms starting in Perl v5.24, the Perl extension for representing
+extremely high code points kicks in at 0x3FFF_FFFF (2**30 -1), which is lower
+than on ASCII. Prior to that, code points 2**31 and higher were simply
+unrepresentable, and a different, incompatible method was used to represent
+code points between 2**30 and 2**31 - 1. The flags C<UNICODE_WARN_ABOVE_31_BIT>
+and C<UNICODE_DISALLOW_ABOVE_31_BIT> have the same function as on ASCII
+platforms, warning and disallowing 2**31 and higher.
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff