bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[michael.albinus]

The following form evals to nil:

  (string-equal "\377" "ÿ")

The character code of "ÿ" is

Char: ÿ (255, #o377, #xff, file ...) point=244 of 5726 (4%) column=23




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bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Andreas Schwab]

michael.albinus@gmx.de writes:

> The following form evals to nil:
>
>   (string-equal "\377" "ÿ")

"\377" is a unibyte string.  When converted to multibyte it yields
"\x3fffff".

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, schwab@linux-m68k.org
GPG Key fingerprint = 58CA 54C7 6D53 942B 1756  01D3 44D5 214B 8276 4ED5
"And now for something completely different."

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Josh]

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On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 5:07 AM, Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org>wrote:

> michael.albinus@gmx.de writes:
>
> > The following form evals to nil:
> >
> >   (string-equal "\377" "ÿ")
>
> "\377" is a unibyte string.  When converted to multibyte it yields
> "\x3fffff".


At least as of 24.3, the manual[0] suggests that such a conversion
should not occur in this case:

    You can also use hexadecimal escape sequences (`\xN') and octal
    escape sequences (`\N') in string constants.  *But beware:* If a
    string constant contains hexadecimal or octal escape sequences,
    and these escape sequences all specify unibyte characters (i.e.,
    less than 256), and there are no other literal non-ASCII
    characters or Unicode-style escape sequences in the string, then
    Emacs automatically assumes that it is a unibyte string.  That is
    to say, it assumes that all non-ASCII characters occurring in the
    string are 8-bit raw bytes.

[0] (info "(elisp) Non-ASCII in Strings")

Josh

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bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Josh <josh@foxtail.org>
> Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2013 06:00:46 -0800
> Cc: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de>, 16048@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 5:07 AM, Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org>wrote:
> 
> > michael.albinus@gmx.de writes:
> >
> > > The following form evals to nil:
> > >
> > >   (string-equal "\377" "ÿ")
> >
> > "\377" is a unibyte string.  When converted to multibyte it yields
> > "\x3fffff".
> 
> 
> At least as of 24.3, the manual[0] suggests that such a conversion
> should not occur in this case:

And it doesn't occur, indeed:

  (multibyte-string-p "\377")

    => nil

>     You can also use hexadecimal escape sequences (`\xN') and octal
>     escape sequences (`\N') in string constants.  *But beware:* If a
>     string constant contains hexadecimal or octal escape sequences,
>     and these escape sequences all specify unibyte characters (i.e.,
>     less than 256), and there are no other literal non-ASCII
>     characters or Unicode-style escape sequences in the string, then
>     Emacs automatically assumes that it is a unibyte string.  That is
>     to say, it assumes that all non-ASCII characters occurring in the
>     string are 8-bit raw bytes.
> 
> [0] (info "(elisp) Non-ASCII in Strings")

Best citation contest? you're on!

   -- Function: string= string1 string2
       This function returns `t' if the characters of the two strings
       match exactly.  Symbols are also allowed as arguments, in which
       case the symbol names are used.  Case is always significant,
       regardless of `case-fold-search'.

   [...]

       For technical reasons, a unibyte and a multibyte string are
       `equal' if and only if they contain the same sequence of character
       codes and all these codes are either in the range 0 through 127
       (ASCII) or 160 through 255 (`eight-bit-graphic').  However, when a
       unibyte string is converted to a multibyte string, all characters
       with codes in the range 160 through 255 are converted to
       characters with higher codes, whereas ASCII characters remain
       unchanged.  Thus, a unibyte string and its conversion to multibyte
       are only `equal' if the string is all ASCII.

Note the last sentence.

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Josh]

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On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 9:29 AM, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> > From: Josh <josh@foxtail.org>
> > Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2013 06:00:46 -0800
> > Cc: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de>, 16048@debbugs.gnu.org
> > On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 5:07 AM, Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org
>wrote:
> > > michael.albinus@gmx.de writes:
> > >
> > > > The following form evals to nil:
> > > >
> > > >   (string-equal "\377" "ÿ")
> > >
> > > "\377" is a unibyte string.  When converted to multibyte it yields
> > > "\x3fffff".
> >
> >
> > At least as of 24.3, the manual[0] suggests that such a conversion
> > should not occur in this case:
> And it doesn't occur, indeed:
>
>   (multibyte-string-p "\377")
>
>     => nil
>
> >     You can also use hexadecimal escape sequences (`\xN') and octal
> >     escape sequences (`\N') in string constants.  *But beware:* If a
> >     string constant contains hexadecimal or octal escape sequences,
> >     and these escape sequences all specify unibyte characters (i.e.,
> >     less than 256), and there are no other literal non-ASCII
> >     characters or Unicode-style escape sequences in the string, then
> >     Emacs automatically assumes that it is a unibyte string.  That is
> >     to say, it assumes that all non-ASCII characters occurring in the
> >     string are 8-bit raw bytes.
> >
> > [0] (info "(elisp) Non-ASCII in Strings")
> Best citation contest? you're on!

No, thanks.  I haven't entered such contests in many years.

>    -- Function: string= string1 string2
>        This function returns `t' if the characters of the two strings
>        match exactly.  Symbols are also allowed as arguments, in which
>        case the symbol names are used.  Case is always significant,
>        regardless of `case-fold-search'.
>
>    [...]
>
>        For technical reasons, a unibyte and a multibyte string are
>        `equal' if and only if they contain the same sequence of character
>        codes and all these codes are either in the range 0 through 127
>        (ASCII) or 160 through 255 (`eight-bit-graphic').  However, when a
>        unibyte string is converted to a multibyte string, all characters
>        with codes in the range 160 through 255 are converted to
>        characters with higher codes, whereas ASCII characters remain
>        unchanged.  Thus, a unibyte string and its conversion to multibyte
>        are only `equal' if the string is all ASCII.
>
> Note the last sentence.

Yes, I must have misunderstood Andreas' meaning; I believed he was
suggesting that the two strings compared differently due to "\377"
having been converted to a multibyte string and therefore miscomparing
with the unibyte (or so I thought) string "ÿ".  I see now that I had
it exactly backwards.  Thanks for setting me straight.

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bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Michael Albinus]

Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org> writes:

> michael.albinus@gmx.de writes:
>
>> The following form evals to nil:
>>
>>   (string-equal "\377" "ÿ")
>
> "\377" is a unibyte string.  When converted to multibyte it yields
> "\x3fffff".

Ah, well. In `dbus-unescape-from-identifier', there is

     (lambda (x) (format "%c" (string-to-number (substring x 1) 16)))

If I replace it by

     (lambda (x) (byte-to-string (string-to-number (substring x 1) 16)))

everything works fine.

> Andreas.

Thanks, and best regards, Michael (writng dbus-tests.el).

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de>
> Date: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 15:05:00 +0100
> Cc: 16048-done@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Ah, well. In `dbus-unescape-from-identifier', there is
> 
>      (lambda (x) (format "%c" (string-to-number (substring x 1) 16)))
> 
> If I replace it by
> 
>      (lambda (x) (byte-to-string (string-to-number (substring x 1) 16)))
> 
> everything works fine.

Beware: byte-to-string returns a unibyte string.  You do NOT want
unibyte strings in your application code.  The problem you had that
started this thread is a very good demonstration why.

So I would leave dbus-unescape-from-identifier intact, and instead fix
the other side of the string comparison, the one that yields "\377".

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Stefan Monnier]

> Beware: byte-to-string returns a unibyte string.  You do NOT want
> unibyte strings in your application code.

IIUC this is dbus code, so it likely handles marshalled data, which
often has to manage bytes rather than chars, so a unibyte string might
be the right thing.


        Stefan "who doesn't actually know what he's talking about"

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Michael Albinus]

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

>> Beware: byte-to-string returns a unibyte string.  You do NOT want
>> unibyte strings in your application code.
>
> IIUC this is dbus code, so it likely handles marshalled data, which
> often has to manage bytes rather than chars, so a unibyte string might
> be the right thing.

Indeed. My ert test case is

  (should
   (string-equal
    (dbus-unescape-from-identifier
     (dbus-escape-as-identifier "0123abc_xyz\x01\xff"))
    "0123abc_xyz\x01\xff"))

`dbus-unescape-from-identifier' cannot know, whether the original string
was unibyte or multibyte. So it must decide for one, and unibyte seems
to be the better decision.

I will add to the docstring of `dbus-unescape-from-identifier', that it
returns always a unibyte string.

>         Stefan "who doesn't actually know what he's talking about"

Best regards, Michael.

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de>
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>,  16048@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 08:51:41 +0100
> 
> > IIUC this is dbus code, so it likely handles marshalled data, which
> > often has to manage bytes rather than chars, so a unibyte string might
> > be the right thing.
> 
> Indeed. My ert test case is
> 
>   (should
>    (string-equal
>     (dbus-unescape-from-identifier
>      (dbus-escape-as-identifier "0123abc_xyz\x01\xff"))
>     "0123abc_xyz\x01\xff"))

FWIW, I don't see anything in this snippet that requires unibyte
strings.

Just to make it clear: Emacs is perfectly capable of holding raw bytes
in multibyte strings.  That's why we have the eight-bit charset.

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Stefan Monnier]

> Just to make it clear: Emacs is perfectly capable of holding raw bytes
> in multibyte strings.  That's why we have the eight-bit charset.

When manipulating sequences of bytes (as opposed to sequences of chars),
I find it is preferable to use unibyte strings.

Indeed, multibyte strings can work as well, but they can be more tricky
to work with since `aref' returns a "eight-bit byte" character rather
than a value between 128-255.

Of course, if your string can contain a mix of bytes and chars, you
don't have a choice.


        Stefan

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
> Cc: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de>,  16048@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 14:11:11 -0500
> 
> Of course, if your string can contain a mix of bytes and chars, you
> don't have a choice.

"0123abc_xyz\x01\xff" looks just such a mix to me.

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Michael Albinus]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> Of course, if your string can contain a mix of bytes and chars, you
>> don't have a choice.
>
> "0123abc_xyz\x01\xff" looks just such a mix to me.

It is a hard core example, not something from the wild. In practice, I
expect rather ASCII strings to be handled.

Best regards, Michael.

bug#16048: 24.3.50; String compare surprise

[Michael Albinus]

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

>> Just to make it clear: Emacs is perfectly capable of holding raw bytes
>> in multibyte strings.  That's why we have the eight-bit charset.
>
> When manipulating sequences of bytes (as opposed to sequences of chars),
> I find it is preferable to use unibyte strings.

We are speaking about functions of dbus.el, which convert a string into
something with a C-style identifier syntax, and back. Nothing I would
expect to be a multibyte string in real life. (Agreed, my example looks
strange, but this is for the hard test in dbus-tests.el)

> Of course, if your string can contain a mix of bytes and chars, you
> don't have a choice.

For the other function in dbus.el, which handles arrays of bytes (often
used to marshall whatever strings are on the wire) I've added earlier
today the possiblity to encode them as unibyte or multibyte. As above,
the function `dbus-byte-array-to-string' cannot decide itself how to
interpret the bytestream, so the caller is requested to decide.

>         Stefan

Best regards, Michael.