From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Eli Zaretskii" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: unibyte<->multibyte conversion [Re: Emacs-diffs Digest, Vol 2, Issue 28] Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 21:09:18 +0300 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <8011-Wed22Jan2003210918+0200-eliz@is.elta.co.il> References: <3405-Sat18Jan2003154003+0200-eliz@is.elta.co.il> <200301200229.LAA16287@etlken.m17n.org> <6480-Mon20Jan2003214849+0200-eliz@is.elta.co.il> <200301202055.h0KKtun11691@rum.cs.yale.edu> <200301221412.h0MECoA01024@rum.cs.yale.edu> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1043263045 23916 80.91.224.249 (22 Jan 2003 19:17:25 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 19:17:25 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 18bQNH-0006DQ-00 for ; Wed, 22 Jan 2003 20:17:23 +0100 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 18bQPB-0005I1-00 for ; Wed, 22 Jan 2003 20:19:21 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18bQNb-0001yE-07 for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Wed, 22 Jan 2003 14:17:43 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.10.13) id 18bQJ1-0000I5-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 22 Jan 2003 14:12:59 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.10.13) id 18bQI0-0008Gc-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 22 Jan 2003 14:11:59 -0500 Original-Received: from bilbo.inter.net.il ([192.114.186.18]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18bQHU-0007fb-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 22 Jan 2003 14:11:25 -0500 Original-Received: from zaretsky (adsl-ayalon-pc-129-22.inter.net.il [213.8.129.22]) by bilbo.inter.net.il (Mirapoint Messaging Server MOS 3.2.2-GA) with ESMTP id ADS55586; Wed, 22 Jan 2003 21:11:01 +0200 (IST) Original-To: monnier+gnu/emacs@rum.cs.yale.edu X-Mailer: emacs 21.3.50 (via feedmail 8 I) and Blat ver 1.8.9 In-reply-to: <200301221412.h0MECoA01024@rum.cs.yale.edu> (monnier+gnu/emacs@rum.cs.yale.edu) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:10982 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:10982 > From: "Stefan Monnier" > Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 09:12:49 -0500 > > If coders such as Eli and myself don't fully understand the semantics > of string-as-multibyte and string-make-multibyte (and the various ways > in which they are implicitly called), it's clear that those functions > should basically not be used by anyone. That is my opinion as well, FWIW. The string conversion functions _are_ useful, but they employ lots of ad-hoc decisions to cope with different, sometimes conflicting, goals. I've heard Handa-san many times explaining what each one of the function does, but I find myself forgetting that too soon, and need to consult the code and conduct experiments every time I bump into them. By constrast, encode-coding-* and decode-coding-* are very straightforward.