Re: unibyte<->multibyte conversion [Re: Emacs-diffs Digest, Vol 2, Issue 28]

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Richard Stallman <address@hidden>
> Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 06:38:17 -0500
> 
> These functions, per se, are straightforward--but would the difference
> between the various proposed coding systems be equally
> straightforward?

I'm not sure what are you asking.  If you are concerned that people
would not grasp the effects of encoding/decoding text with ``obscure''
coding systems like no-conversion and raw-text, then I agree with
Stefan: these conversions are well-defined and can be understood upon
careful reading.  (If the current docs doesn't do a good job
explaining those coding systems, we could improve that.)

The important point, to me, is that using en/decode-coding-*, you know
_exactly_ what will happen, since you specify the encoding.  The
string-*-uni/multibyte functions, by contrast, make complicated
decisions about the encoding, so you need to memorize those decisions
to use the functions in a predictable manner.  I find myself unable to
remember that; perhaps it's just me and my failing memory.