Re: package.el encoding problem

[Stefan Monnier]

>> We used to put it into a multibyte buffer, which then causes the save
>> the be all confused because the bytes 128-255 it contains aren't part of
>> any coding-system.
>
> I don't see how that matters.  Raw bytes should be converted back to
> their original unibyte form when saving, no matter what coding-system
> is used.

The bytes were saved correctly.  But before that happened, the user was
prompted to choose a coding-system.

>> It is definitely *possible* to use multibyte buffers even in cases where
>> we only manipulate bytes, but it is undesirable.
> I'm probably missing something, because I don't see would that be
> undesirable.

It doesn't do anything else than introduce problems (e.g. having to
decide how to encode chars even though there are no chars to decode)
and inefficiencies.

I'm rather curious what you think would be the benefits from using
a multibyte buffer here.


        Stefan