Re: Why does using aset sometimes output raw bytes?

[Stephen Berman]

On Sun, 09 Dec 2018 17:20:13 +0200 Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

>> Here's what gets inserted into the buffer (I've represented the raw
>> bytes by ascii strings to make sure they're readable here):
>> 
>> \344\366\374\337ſðđŋ
>> äöüßſðđŋ
>> 
>> Is this expected, and if so, what's the explanation, i.e., why does this
>> happen with some non-ascii characters (e.g. äöüß) but not with others
>> (e.g ſðđŋ) and why does it happen when aset gets passed a variable
>> for the string but not when it gets passed the string itself?
>
> s0 and s2 originally include only pure ASCII characters, so they are
> unibyte strings.  Try making them multibyte before using aset.

Thanks, that works.  But why are raw bytes inserted only with some
multibyte strings (e.g. with "äöüß" but not with "ſðđŋ")?  Also, is
there some way to ensure a string is handled as multibyte if it's not
known what characters it contains?  E.g., s0 in my example sexp could be
bound to some string by a function call and before applying the function
it is not known if the string is multibyte; is there some way in Lisp to
say "treat the value of s0 as multibyte (regardless of what characters
it contains)"?

Steve Berman