Re: `.newsrc.eld' saves chinese group name in wrong coding

[Stefan Monnier]

>> IIRC, nntp servers understand utf-8 encoded group names.  So,
>> someone might have considered making Gnus use them internally is
>> convenient to communicate with nntp servers.

> I'd say this design decision will certainly cause subtle bugs, such as
> the one we are discussing in this thread.  I suggest to modify the
> design to not use encoded strings internally.

It could be, although it would make sense to manipulate group names in
"encoded" form, in the sense of "not decoded".  I.e. keep the group names
obtained from the news server in their raw unibyte form, and only decode for
display purposes and only encode when the name comes from another place than
the server itself.  This way, Gnus should be able to (partly) work with
arbitrary encodings rather than mandating utf-8.  This may also help with
problems linked to utf-8 normalization (or lack thereof).


        Stefan