Would std::basic_string be preferable to std::wstring on Windows?

Question

As I understand it, Windows #defines TCHAR as the correct character type for your application based on the build - so it is wchar_t in UNICODE builds and char

Answer 1

I believe the time when it was advisable to release non-unicode versions of your application (to support Win95, or to save a KB or two) is long past: nowadays the underlying Windows system you'll support are going to be unicode-based (so using char-based system interfaces will actually complicate the code by interposing a shim layer from the library) and it's doubtful whether you'd save any space at all. Go std::wstring, young man!-)