C++ Streams support for hstring and IStringable

[jaigak]

Today it doesn't seem possible to output an hstring directly to a C++ stream (eg: wcout).

cpp
hstring text;
// Doesn't work.
std::wcout << text;

// Works.
std::wcout << text.c_str();
std::wcout << static_cast<std::wstring_view>(text);

Please overload operator<< for hstring, as well as types implementing IStringable.

[kennykerr]

This isn't supported but is trivial to work around as you've illustrated. Most applications don't require this support, so it wasn't deemed a necessary dependency.

[sylveon]

if you really want std::wcout << hstr to compile:

std::wostream& operator<<(std::wostream& os, winrt::hstring const& str)
{
    os << static_cast<std::wstring_view>(str);
    return os;
}

IStringable left as an exercise to the reader ;)

[jaigak]

I would still prefer it to be built-in. Even if Windows GUI apps aren't going to use wcout, they can still use other stream types like wstringstream and wifstream.