Re: [Unicode-2] `read' always returns multibyte symbol

[Katsumi Yamaoka]

>>>>> Stefan Monnier wrote:

>> !     ;; Use a unibyte buffer in order to make `read' read non-ASCII
>> !     ;; group names (which have been encoded) as unibyte strings.
>> !     (mm-with-unibyte-buffer
>> !       (insert-buffer-substring cur)

> Why is `cur' a multibyte buffer?  Since it contains encoded strings, I'd
> expect it would be better (more robust and convenient) to use a unibyte
> buffer for it.

Good point.  The `cur' is `nntp-server-buffer' (" *nntpd*") or
`gnus-work-buffer' (" *gnus work*") as the case may be.  Gnus uses
those buffers for various purposes.  Although there looks no
situation where it is necessary to have multibyte data as far as
I can observe, Gnus explicitly sets them as multibyte buffers (see
`nnheader-init-server-buffer' and `gnus-set-work-buffer').  I
believe the reason they do so is to prevent from breaking data
when copying them to another multibyte buffer (IIUC, copying data
from a multibyte buffer to a unibyte buffer causes no problem).
So, I didn't modify those buffers' multibyteness.  If I introduced
a new unibyte work buffer (such as " *gnus binary work*"), it
required that `gnus-read-active-file-2' binds `nntp-server-buffer'
to it for example.  It is used by all the back ends but I'm not
sure it never causes a problem with them all.

Regards,