Martin Buchholz writes: Martin> Conversion between internal and external string representation needs Martin> to happen whenever data is passed between XEmacs and the `outside Martin> world'. Yup. Then, I reformulate my question: when XEmacs retrieves a string from the outside world, say a pathname or the environment, how does it know the `outside' format? According to the locale it was started under? If it's the case (so if XEmacs doesn't try to be clever), handling inconsistencies in the user's environment is problematic. Martin> It sounds like the data in the lisp string may already have Martin> been corrupt. Why? At the lisp level, everything looks correct. Even inside the debugger `call debug_print (current_dir)' produces a correct output. Martin> if ERROR_CHECK_BUFPOS and MULE are both defined, then any attempt to Martin> create a corrupt string should coredump in make_string, pinpointing Martin> the true culprit in the C code. Which doesn't happen for me. I have all error checkings activated. -- / / _ _ Didier Verna http://www.inf.enst.fr/~verna/ - / / - / / /_/ / E.N.S.T. INF C201.1 mailto:verna＠inf.enst.fr /_/ / /_/ / /__ / 46 rue Barrault Tel. (33) 01 45 81 73 46 75634 Paris cedex 13 Fax. (33) 01 45 81 31 19