Re: Emacs Lisp's future

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Andreas Schwab <schwab@suse.de> writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> Andreas Schwab <schwab@suse.de> writes:
>>
>>> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>>>
>>>> Andreas Schwab <schwab@suse.de> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Andreas Schwab <schwab@suse.de> writes:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> One problem with that is that quite often Emacs' choice of a coding
>>>>>>>> system for a buffer is the result of heuristics rather than dependable
>>>>>>>> information.  Not making a fuzz might often be simplest.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If you try to save a buffer Emacs will check whether all characters are
>>>>>>> encodable, and complain (and ask) if they aren't.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sure, but a raw byte is trivially encodable since it is no character.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is a contradiction.  It isn't a character, so it isn't encodable.
>>>>
>>>> The character representation of "raw byte" is trivially encodable since
>>>> it represents a single byte in any encoding.
>>>
>>> No encoding (except raw-text) can encode characters from the eight-bit
>>> charset.
>>
>> (encode-coding-string (string (decode-char 'eight-bit 128)) 'utf-8)
>> => "\200"
>
> That's what you get if you *force* the coding system.

It would appear that you are forcing your logic.  "No encoding can ..."
does not mean that.

> But Emacs will still complain and ask if you try to save such a
> buffer.

(let ((coding-system-for-write 'utf-8-unix))
  (with-temp-file "/tmp/bozo"
    (insert(encode-coding-string (string (decode-char 'eight-bit 128)) 'utf-8))))

od /tmp/bozo
0000000 000200
0000001

What you mean is that Emacs is asked to _select_ or to _verify_ a coding
system (as is customary for interactive editing of a file) it will do so
and get back to the user when necessary.

But that is _quite_ different from Emacs being _incapable_ of encoding
raw bytes to a file or a stream of a specified encoding.  It means that
when you are using an _application_ that is expected to deliver only
decodable characters, then the _application_ will _ask_ before going
ahead.

But the _engine_ is perfectly capable of going through here.  Once you
confuse engine and application and state "Emacs should not be able to
encode characters from the eight-bit set" rather than "the normal file
saving operation defaulting to using buffer-file-coding-system for
coding-system-for-write after verifying its suitability should ask
before picking a value of coding-system-for-write that cause a file to
be written that is not representable without raw bytes" you are
proposing to cripple Emacs.

Or GUILE.

-- 
David Kastrup