ASCII to Unicode - What Can Possibly Go Wrong?

Explore the evolution from ASCII to Unicode in this 51-minute conference talk that demystifies text processing complexities in modern software development. Discover what constitutes a character, understand the true meaning of string length, and learn how to combine different scripts within a single text. Move beyond the ASCII-oriented mindset as you follow the journey toward the Unicode standard, examining abstract concepts essential for proper text handling. Gain hands-on experience through practical code samples that demonstrate Unicode-related features and UTF encoding implementations. Master the fundamentals of Unicode, understand the problems it solves, work confidently with various UTF encodings, and develop skills for processing text in a safe, reliable, and correct manner across different languages and scripts.