Re: Maybe we can improve this function call-process-to-string?

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> (defun call-process-to-string (program &optional infile display &rest args)
>   (let* ((buffer-name "Output")
> 	 (buffer (generate-new-buffer buffer-name))
> 	 (status (apply #'call-process program infile buffer display args))
> 	 (current-buffer (current-buffer))
> 	 (output (if status
> 		     (progn 
> 		       (switch-to-buffer buffer)
> 		       (buffer-string))
> 		   "")))
>     (switch-to-buffer current-buffer)
>     output))

The docstring of `switch-to-buffer` is fairly long, but the first
5 lines are recommended reading:

    Display buffer BUFFER-OR-NAME in the selected window.
    
    WARNING: This is NOT the way to work on another buffer temporarily
    within a Lisp program!  Use `set-buffer' instead.  That avoids
    messing with the window-buffer correspondences.

Also the above code forgot to kill the buffer you created.
I recommend `with-temp-buffer` here instead:

    (with-temp-buffer
      (apply #'call-process program infile t display args)
      (buffer-string))


-- Stefan