Re: bug#1212: 23.0.60; split-string-and-unquote problems

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
> Cc: Andreas Schwab <schwab@suse.de>,  emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org,  1212@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:11:10 -0400
> 
> >     *** `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
> >     *** `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
> 
> AFAIK, these two functions are meant to:
> 
> - provide a way to specify any list of strings within a single string
>   (i.e. it needs to provide some separators and some way to quote the
>   separators), using a format that's simple to type for the end user.

Thanks.

However, this describes roughly what the code does (which I kinda
understood myself by reading it ;-), but does not explain under what
circumstances would those functions be useful.  By looking at the uses
of split-string-and-unquote, I deduced that the intended use is for
taking apart shell command lines.  If that is not the intent, then
what is it?

> - be inverse of each other; more precisely
>   (equal STR (split-string-and-unquote (combine-and-quote-strings STR)))
>   this is also stipulated in the docstring of split-string-and-unquote.

The doc strings make very clear that the functions are reversible, but
that in itself does not yet mean they are useful, or for what purpose
exactly.