bug#59305: 29.0.50; keymap-global-set handling of string bindings different from global-set-key

[Robert Pluim <rpluim@gmail.com>]

>>>>> On Thu, 24 Nov 2022 16:14:05 -0800, Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com> said:

    Stefan> Robert Pluim <rpluim@gmail.com> writes:
    >> After reading up on `key-valid-p':
    >> 
    >> 5. (keymap-global-set "C-c h" "h e l l o") => success!
    >> 
    >> or alternatively
    >> 
    >> 6. (keymap-global-set "C-c h" [?h ?e ?l ?l ?o]) => success!
    >> 
    >> Whilst not strictly a regression, this behaviour is confusing and
    >> unhelpful, and the solution is not easily found. I can think of two
    >> solutions:
    >> 
    >> 1. Change `kbd' to always return a vector even if the input is
    >> ascii-only, which makes [4] work
    >> 2. Change `keymap-set' to convert ascii-only strings to the format in
    >> [5] or [6]. Probably just a call to `string-to-vector' is enough.

    Stefan> I feel like the second alternative goes against the design of
    Stefan> `keymap-global-set', where the idea explicitly was to only support a KEY
    Stefan> argument that is `key-valid-p'.

It was? If so, then it should not have been touted as the replacement
for `global-set-key' everywhere without a big warning sign.

    Stefan> Could we perhaps introduce a new optional argument to treat the argument
    Stefan> as a literal string?  Or if really want it to not be `key-valid-p', to
    Stefan> at least require it to be something like '(literal "foo") ?

(string-to-vector "foo") will do. But that just highlights the problem
even more: if itʼs that simple, why canʼt `keymap-global-set' do that
internally instead of forcing users to jump through hoops?

Robert
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