Making `kbd` always return a vector (was: [elpa] externals/transient 022f20e: Explicitly require edmacro)

Making `kbd` always return a vector (was: [elpa] externals/transient 022f20e: Explicitly require edmacro)

[Stefan Monnier]

BTW, the patch below is because `transient` needs to manipulate the
return value of `kbd` and in order to avoid the complexity of having to
deal with "sometimes a string sometimes a vector" it passes the
`need-vector` argument to `edmacro-parse-keys`.


        Stefan "who still hasn't encountered a piece of code which
                requires `kbd` to return a string rather than a vector"


Jonas Bernoulli [2021-10-23 09:15:56] wrote:
> branch: externals/transient
> commit 022f20e9581b317bffe3457a2422b3a7075761f6
> Author: Jonas Bernoulli <jonas@bernoul.li>
> Commit: Jonas Bernoulli <jonas@bernoul.li>
>
>     Explicitly require edmacro
>     
>     Changes in Emacs' "master" branch make it necessary for
>     use to require edmacro explicitly.
>     
>     Closes #168.
>     Closes #166.
>     Fixes https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs/issues/5670.
> ---
>  lisp/transient.el | 1 +
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>
> diff --git a/lisp/transient.el b/lisp/transient.el
> index 8752827..c10db31 100644
> --- a/lisp/transient.el
> +++ b/lisp/transient.el
> @@ -54,6 +54,7 @@
>  
>  (require 'cl-lib)
>  (require 'eieio)
> +(require 'edmacro)
>  (require 'format-spec)
>  (require 'seq)
>  

Re: Making `kbd` always return a vector

[Po Lu]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> BTW, the patch below is because `transient` needs to manipulate the
> return value of `kbd` and in order to avoid the complexity of having to
> deal with "sometimes a string sometimes a vector" it passes the
> `need-vector` argument to `edmacro-parse-keys`.
>
>
>         Stefan "who still hasn't encountered a piece of code which
>                 requires `kbd` to return a string rather than a vector"

I think I've seen code that needs that.  I can't remember where though.

(It was probably one of the few packages that display help information
for key sequences as they are being entered.)

But IMO the extra complexity is not a problem, compared to the problems
that can result from breakage in code relying on such vital
functionality.

Re: Making `kbd` always return a vector

[Stefan Monnier]

Po Lu [2021-10-24 10:12:08] wrote:
> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
>> BTW, the patch below is because `transient` needs to manipulate the
>> return value of `kbd` and in order to avoid the complexity of having to
>> deal with "sometimes a string sometimes a vector" it passes the
>> `need-vector` argument to `edmacro-parse-keys`.
>>
>>
>>         Stefan "who still hasn't encountered a piece of code which
>>                 requires `kbd` to return a string rather than a vector"
>
> I think I've seen code that needs that.  I can't remember where though.

If you (re)find it, I'd love to hear about it.

> (It was probably one of the few packages that display help information
> for key sequences as they are being entered.)

Hmmm sounds likely (since such code will need to handle those
keysequences which can't be represented as strings, so they should
already handle vector outputs correctly).

One of the possible source of incompatibility is that strings and
vectors behave differently w.r.t `equal`.


        Stefan