Re: [PATCH] Add a mechanism for passing unibyte strings from lisp to modules.

[tomas]

On Wed, Jun 26, 2024 at 04:23:46PM +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:39:30 +0200
> > Cc: Brennan Vincent <brennan@umanwizard.com>, acorallo@gnu.org,
> >     stefankangas@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> > From:  <tomas@tuxteam.de>
> > 
> > 
> > On Wed, Jun 26, 2024 at 03:26:52PM +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > 
> > [...]
> > 
> > > > I think it would be great if emacs grew a specialized vector-of-bytes 
> > > > type.
> > > 
> > > How will it be different from the Lisp vectors we already have?
> > 
> > The box around every byte.
> 
> What box?  Please tell more, as I don't think I follow.

Maybe I'm all wrong, but AFAIU, a vector can contain arbitrary Lisp
values. That makes 64bits/8bits plus boxing/unboxing (which is, I
assume, quick, but nonzero).

Having a specialized "array of bytes" (as there is one for bools)
might be beneficial for big arrays, and perhaps avoid big data moving
operations over the C/LISP fence.

I do understand your reservations, but I do understand the OP's
wish as well :-)

If at all, a "byte array" would be, of course, cleaner than a
unibyte string, with all its implicit magic.

Cheers
-- 
t

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