comparison man/mule.texi @ 38786:4d3fd773cd30

Minor cleanups.

38785:4545461cb478

table and terminal coding system, the locale coding system, and the
preferred coding system as needed for the locale.

  If you modify the @env{LC_ALL}, @env{LC_CTYPE}, or @env{LANG}
environment variables while running Emacs, you may want to invoke the
@code{set-locale-environment} function afterwards to re-adjust the
language environment from the new locale.

@vindex locale-preferred-coding-systems
  The @code{set-locale-environment} function normally uses the preferred
coding system established by the language environment to decode system

has its own input method; sometimes several languages which use the same
characters can share one input method.  A few languages support several
input methods.

  The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters
into another alphabet; this allows you to type characters that your
keyboard doesn't support directly.  This is how the Greek and Russian
input methods work.

  A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
characters into one letter.  Many European input methods use composition
to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence that consists of a
letter followed by accent characters (or vice versa).  For example, some

  Chinese and Japanese require more complex methods.  In Chinese input
methods, first you enter the phonetic spelling of a Chinese word (in
input method @code{chinese-py}, among others), or a sequence of
portions of the character (input methods @code{chinese-4corner} and
@code{chinese-sw}, and others).  One phonetic spelling typically
corresponds to many different Chinese characters.  You select the one
you mean using keys such as @kbd{C-f}, @kbd{C-b}, @kbd{C-n},
@kbd{C-p}, and digits, which have special meanings in this situation.

  The possible characters are conceptually arranged in several rows,
with each row holding up to 10 alternatives.  Normally, Emacs displays

alternative of the current row and uses it as input.

  @key{TAB} in these Chinese input methods displays a buffer showing
all the possible characters at once; then clicking @kbd{Mouse-2} on
one of them selects that alternative.  The keys @kbd{C-f}, @kbd{C-b},
@kbd{C-n}, @kbd{C-p}, and digits continue to work also.  When this
buffer is visible, @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} move the current
alternative to a different row.

  In Japanese input methods, first you input a whole word using
phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.  One
phonetic spelling corresponds to a number of different Japanese words;

list.

  If you use a coding system that specifies the end-of-line conversion
type, such as @code{iso-8859-1-dos}, what this means is that Emacs
should attempt to recognize @code{iso-8859-1} with priority, and should
use DOS end-of-line conversion if it recognizes @code{iso-8859-1}.

@vindex file-coding-system-alist
  Sometimes a file name indicates which coding system to use for the
file.  The variable @code{file-coding-system-alist} specifies this
correspondence.  There is a special function

  You can specify the coding system for a particular file using the
@w{@samp{-*-@dots{}-*-}} construct at the beginning of a file, or a
local variables list at the end (@pxref{File Variables}).  You do this
by defining a value for the ``variable'' named @code{coding}.  Emacs
does not really have a variable @code{coding}; instead of setting a
variable, it uses the specified coding system for the file.  For
example, @samp{-*-mode: C; coding: latin-1;-*-} specifies use of the
Latin-1 coding system, as well as C mode.  If you specify the coding
explicitly in the file, that overrides
@code{file-coding-system-alist}.

@vindex auto-coding-alist
@vindex auto-coding-regexp-alist

most coding systems can only handle some of the possible characters.
This means that it is possible for you to insert characters that
cannot be encoded with the coding system that will be used to save the
buffer.  For example, you could start with an ASCII file and insert a
few Latin-1 characters into it, or you could edit a text file in
Polish encoded in @code{iso-8859-2} and add to it translations of
several Polish words into Russian.  When you save the buffer, Emacs
cannot use the current value of @code{buffer-file-coding-system},
because the characters you added cannot be encoded by that coding
system.

  When that happens, Emacs tries the most-preferred coding system (set
by @kbd{M-x prefer-coding-system} or @kbd{M-x
set-language-environment}), and if that coding system can safely
encode all of the characters in the buffer, Emacs uses it, and stores

38786:4d3fd773cd30

table and terminal coding system, the locale coding system, and the
preferred coding system as needed for the locale.

  If you modify the @env{LC_ALL}, @env{LC_CTYPE}, or @env{LANG}
environment variables while running Emacs, you may want to invoke the
@code{set-locale-environment} function afterwards to readjust the
language environment from the new locale.

@vindex locale-preferred-coding-systems
  The @code{set-locale-environment} function normally uses the preferred
coding system established by the language environment to decode system

has its own input method; sometimes several languages which use the same
characters can share one input method.  A few languages support several
input methods.

  The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters
into another alphabet; this allows you to use one other alphabet
instead of ASCII.  The Greek and Russian input methods
work this way.

  A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
characters into one letter.  Many European input methods use composition
to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence that consists of a
letter followed by accent characters (or vice versa).  For example, some

  Chinese and Japanese require more complex methods.  In Chinese input
methods, first you enter the phonetic spelling of a Chinese word (in
input method @code{chinese-py}, among others), or a sequence of
portions of the character (input methods @code{chinese-4corner} and
@code{chinese-sw}, and others).  One input sequence typically
corresponds to many possible Chinese characters.  You select the one
you mean using keys such as @kbd{C-f}, @kbd{C-b}, @kbd{C-n},
@kbd{C-p}, and digits, which have special meanings in this situation.

  The possible characters are conceptually arranged in several rows,
with each row holding up to 10 alternatives.  Normally, Emacs displays

alternative of the current row and uses it as input.

  @key{TAB} in these Chinese input methods displays a buffer showing
all the possible characters at once; then clicking @kbd{Mouse-2} on
one of them selects that alternative.  The keys @kbd{C-f}, @kbd{C-b},
@kbd{C-n}, @kbd{C-p}, and digits continue to work as usual, but they
do the highlighting in the buffer showing the possible characters,
rather than in the echo area.

  In Japanese input methods, first you input a whole word using
phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.  One
phonetic spelling corresponds to a number of different Japanese words;

list.

  If you use a coding system that specifies the end-of-line conversion
type, such as @code{iso-8859-1-dos}, what this means is that Emacs
should attempt to recognize @code{iso-8859-1} with priority, and should
use DOS end-of-line conversion when it does recognize @code{iso-8859-1}.

@vindex file-coding-system-alist
  Sometimes a file name indicates which coding system to use for the
file.  The variable @code{file-coding-system-alist} specifies this
correspondence.  There is a special function

  You can specify the coding system for a particular file using the
@w{@samp{-*-@dots{}-*-}} construct at the beginning of a file, or a
local variables list at the end (@pxref{File Variables}).  You do this
by defining a value for the ``variable'' named @code{coding}.  Emacs
does not really have a variable @code{coding}; instead of setting a
variable, this uses the specified coding system for the file.  For
example, @samp{-*-mode: C; coding: latin-1;-*-} specifies use of the
Latin-1 coding system, as well as C mode.  When you specify the coding
explicitly in the file, that overrides
@code{file-coding-system-alist}.

@vindex auto-coding-alist
@vindex auto-coding-regexp-alist

most coding systems can only handle some of the possible characters.
This means that it is possible for you to insert characters that
cannot be encoded with the coding system that will be used to save the
buffer.  For example, you could start with an ASCII file and insert a
few Latin-1 characters into it, or you could edit a text file in
Polish encoded in @code{iso-8859-2} and add some Russian words to it.
When you save the buffer, Emacs cannot use the current value of
@code{buffer-file-coding-system}, because the characters you added
cannot be encoded by that coding system.

  When that happens, Emacs tries the most-preferred coding system (set
by @kbd{M-x prefer-coding-system} or @kbd{M-x
set-language-environment}), and if that coding system can safely
encode all of the characters in the buffer, Emacs uses it, and stores