title: UTF8 vs. UTF16 vs. char* vs. what? Someone explain this mess to me!
body: <p>I've managed to mostly ignore all this multi-byte character stuff, but now I need to do some UI work and I know my ignorance in this area is going to catch up with me! Can anyone explain in a few paragraphs or less just what I need to know so that I can localize my applications? What types should I be using (I use both .Net and C/C++, and I need this answer for both Unix and Windows).</p>