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> A-suffixed functions only exist for some Win32 API. Newer Win32 functions are defined only taking Unicode strings. All COM, WinRT and native (Rtl/Nt) APIs use Unicode strings as well. The UTF-8 API surface is actually quite small - one might have to step out of the UTF-8 comfort zone in practice.

Unicode is not a binary encoding, perhaps you meant UTF-16/WTF-16, which are binary encoding of Unicode?

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Yes and no.

My post specifically mentions UTF-16 and WTF-16, too. The term "Unicode string" exists and is well established: https://unicode.org/glossary/#unicode_string.

Windows Unicode strings happen to fit this definition, but of course, so would UTF-8 strings. Either way, in Windows's version of reality the definition is narrowed to mean "potentially ill-formed UTF-16LE encoded string", but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, so for better or for worse, "Unicode string" is the consistently and widely used Windows-specific nomenclature.

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