Encoding Explorer

Simple utility for testing the effect of different ways of generating text output.

Usage

encexp method mode [options...]

method defines the basic API category used and is one of:

winapi: use Windows API methods (OpenFile(), WriteFile(), WriteConsole())
posix: use ‘POSIX style’ methods (_open(), _write())
unformatted: use unformatted C stream I/O (fopen() and fwrite())
formatted: use formatted C stream I/O (fopen() and fprintf())
unformatted++: use unformatted C++ stream I/O (std::basic_ostream and .write())
formatted++: use formatted C++ stream I/O (std::basic_ostream and <<)

mode selects different options within the API and is one of:

binary: data as non-text binary
text: data as narrow-character (8-bit) text
wide: data as wide-character (16-bit) text
unicode: output as ‘Unicode mode’; this is something variously described in Microsoft documentation as accepting wide-character (i.e. UTF-16) and converted internally to UTF-8
wideunicode: even less well documented, vaguely described as accepting UTF-16 and outputting UTF-16

Not every mode is supported by every method (as described in the table, below).

Supported options are:

cp####: set the Console Output Code Page (through a call to SetConsoleOutputPage()) prior to generating output
l####: set the locale prior to generating output; the specific method used depends on the selected Method and is
file: output directly to a file named output as opposed to standard output

Method	Binary	Text	Wide	Unicode	Wide Unicode
Windows API	`WriteFile()`	`WriteConsoleA()`	`WriteConsoleW()`	n/a	n/a
‘POSIX’ style	`_open(_O_BINARY)`	`_open(_O_TEXT)`	`_open(_O_WTEXT)`	`_open(_O_U8TEXT)`	`_open(_O_U16TEXT)`
C unformatted	`fopen("wb")` `fwrite()`	`fopen("w")` `fwrite()`	`fopen("w,ccs=unicode")` `fwrite()`	`fopen("w,ccs=utf-8")` `fwrite()`	`fopen("w,ccs=utf-16le")` `fwrite()`
C formatted	`fopen("wb")` `fprintf()`	`fopen("w")` `fprintf()`	`fopen("w,ccs=unicode")` `fwprintf()`	`fopen("w,ccs=utf-8")` `fwprintf()`	`fopen("w,ccs=utf-16le")` `fwprintf()`
C++ unformatted	`ostream(ios::binary)` `.write()`	`ostream()` `.write()`	`wostream()` `.write()`	`fopen("w,ccs=utf-8")` `wostream(FILE)` `.write()`	`fopen("w,ccs=utf-16le")` `wostream(FILE)` `codecvt_utf16` `.write()`
C++ formatted	`ostream(ios::binary)` `<<`	`ostream()` `<<`	`wostream()` `<<`	`fopen("w,ccs=utf-8")` `wostream(FILE)` `<<`	`fopen("w,ccs=utf-16le")` `wostream(FILE)` `codecvt_utf16` `<<`

Windows API: n/a
POSIX style: n/a
C (unformatted and formatted): setlocale(LC_ALL, ####)
C++ (unformatted and formatted):
- binary, text (narrow input and output): std::ostream::imbue(std::locale(####))
- wide, unicode (wide input, narrow output): std::wostream::imbue(std::locale(####))
- wide unicode (wide input and output): std::wostream::imbue(std::locale()) with std::codecvt_utf16