ICU library
Shares rank 2 of 3 unicode libraries by recommenders
Widely recommended as the standard Unicode and globalization library, seen as well engineered. Common caveat: easy to misuse, especially around normalization.
Widely recommended as the standard Unicode and globalization library, seen as well engineered. Common caveat: easy to misuse, especially around normalization.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Seen as the best standard
“it’s the best standard we have”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Full Unicode Search at 50× ICU Speed with AVX‑512” Excellent, well-engineered library
“I think what you are asking for already exists in the excellent ICU library.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “APT Rust requirement raises questions” “Not to say ICU isn't a nice bit of engineering.”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “Brimstone: ES2025 JavaScript engine written in Rust”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Easy to misuse, normalization pitfalls
“Yes, though it's easy to not use the ICU library properly or run into issues wrt normalization etc”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “Brimstone: ES2025 JavaScript engine written in Rust”
Other unicode libraries people recommend
The two most recommended other unicode libraries, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| chardet | 7 | 21 | 25% | 1 | — | — |
| ICU libraryThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 3 | — | — |
| Mojibake Unicode library | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it’s the best standard we have”
“ICU and your fancy library are incorrect, actually.”
“I think what you are asking for already exists in the excellent ICU library.”
“Yes, though it's easy to not use the ICU library properly or run into issues wrt normalization etc”
“Not to say ICU isn't a nice bit of engineering.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.