Mercurial > emacs
view man/mule.texi @ 46377:d50779ef2a76
* lisp.h (STRING_INTERVALS): Produce rvalue.
(STRING_SET_INTERVALS): New macro.
| author | Ken Raeburn <raeburn@raeburn.org> |
|---|---|
| date | Mon, 15 Jul 2002 06:54:23 +0000 |
| parents | b3a9c5fdc73a |
| children | 487968d71def |
line wrap: on
line source
@c This is part of the Emacs manual. @c Copyright (C) 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc. @c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions. @node International, Major Modes, Frames, Top @chapter International Character Set Support @cindex MULE @cindex international scripts @cindex multibyte characters @cindex encoding of characters @cindex Celtic @cindex Chinese @cindex Cyrillic @cindex Czech @cindex Devanagari @cindex Hindi @cindex Marathi @cindex Ethiopic @cindex German @cindex Greek @cindex Hebrew @cindex IPA @cindex Japanese @cindex Korean @cindex Lao @cindex Latin @cindex Polish @cindex Romanian @cindex Slovak @cindex Slovenian @cindex Thai @cindex Tibetan @cindex Turkish @cindex Vietnamese @cindex Dutch @cindex Spanish Emacs supports a wide variety of international character sets, including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopic, Greek, Hebrew, IPA, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as MULE (for ``MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs'') Emacs also supports various encodings of these characters used by other internationalized software, such as word processors and mailers. Emacs allows editing text with international characters by supporting all the related activities: @itemize @bullet @item You can visit files with non-ASCII characters, save non-ASCII text, and pass non-ASCII text between Emacs and programs it invokes (such as compilers, spell-checkers, and mailers). Setting your language environment (@pxref{Language Environments}) takes care of setting up the coding systems and other options for a specific language or culture. Alternatively, you can specify how Emacs should encode or decode text for each command; see @ref{Specify Coding}. @item You can display non-ASCII characters encoded by the various scripts. This works by using appropriate fonts on X and similar graphics displays (@pxref{Defining Fontsets}), and by sending special codes to text-only displays (@pxref{Specify Coding}). If some characters are displayed incorrectly, refer to @ref{Undisplayable Characters}, which describes possible problems and explains how to solve them. @item You can insert non-ASCII characters or search for them. To do that, you can specify an input method (@pxref{Select Input Method}) suitable for your language, or use the default input method set up when you set your language environment. (Emacs input methods are part of the Leim package, which must be installed for you to be able to use them.) If your keyboard can produce non-ASCII characters, you can select an appropriate keyboard coding system (@pxref{Specify Coding}), and Emacs will accept those characters. Latin-1 characters can also be input by using the @kbd{C-x 8} prefix, see @ref{Single-Byte Character Support, C-x 8}. On X Window systems, your locale should be set to an appropriate value to make sure Emacs interprets keyboard input correctly; see @ref{Language Environments, locales}. @end itemize The rest of this chapter describes these issues in detail. @menu * International Chars:: Basic concepts of multibyte characters. * Enabling Multibyte:: Controlling whether to use multibyte characters. * Language Environments:: Setting things up for the language you use. * Input Methods:: Entering text characters not on your keyboard. * Select Input Method:: Specifying your choice of input methods. * Multibyte Conversion:: How single-byte characters convert to multibyte. * Coding Systems:: Character set conversion when you read and write files, and so on. * Recognize Coding:: How Emacs figures out which conversion to use. * Specify Coding:: Various ways to choose which conversion to use. * Fontsets:: Fontsets are collections of fonts that cover the whole spectrum of characters. * Defining Fontsets:: Defining a new fontset. * Undisplayable Characters:: When characters don't display. * Single-Byte Character Support:: You can pick one European character set to use without multibyte characters. * Charsets:: How Emacs groups its internal character codes. @end menu @node International Chars @section Introduction to International Character Sets The users of international character sets and scripts have established many more-or-less standard coding systems for storing files. Emacs internally uses a single multibyte character encoding, so that it can intermix characters from all these scripts in a single buffer or string. This encoding represents each non-ASCII character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377. Emacs translates between the multibyte character encoding and various other coding systems when reading and writing files, when exchanging data with subprocesses, and (in some cases) in the @kbd{C-q} command (@pxref{Multibyte Conversion}). @kindex C-h h @findex view-hello-file @cindex undisplayable characters @cindex @samp{?} in display The command @kbd{C-h h} (@code{view-hello-file}) displays the file @file{etc/HELLO}, which shows how to say ``hello'' in many languages. This illustrates various scripts. If some characters can't be displayed on your terminal, they appear as @samp{?} or as hollow boxes (@pxref{Undisplayable Characters}). Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used, generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs supports various @dfn{input methods}, typically one for each script or language, to make it convenient to type them. @kindex C-x RET The prefix key @kbd{C-x @key{RET}} is used for commands that pertain to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods. @node Enabling Multibyte @section Enabling Multibyte Characters @cindex turn multibyte support on or off You can enable or disable multibyte character support, either for Emacs as a whole, or for a single buffer. When multibyte characters are disabled in a buffer, then each byte in that buffer represents a character, even codes 0200 through 0377. The old features for supporting the European character sets, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2, work as they did in Emacs 19 and also work for the other ISO 8859 character sets. However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to use ISO Latin; the Emacs multibyte character set includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can translate automatically to and from the ISO codes. By default, Emacs starts in multibyte mode, because that allows you to use all the supported languages and scripts without limitations. To edit a particular file in unibyte representation, visit it using @code{find-file-literally}. @xref{Visiting}. To convert a buffer in multibyte representation into a single-byte representation of the same characters, the easiest way is to save the contents in a file, kill the buffer, and find the file again with @code{find-file-literally}. You can also use @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c} (@code{universal-coding-system-argument}) and specify @samp{raw-text} as the coding system with which to find or save a file. @xref{Specify Coding}. Finding a file as @samp{raw-text} doesn't disable format conversion, uncompression and auto mode selection as @code{find-file-literally} does. @vindex enable-multibyte-characters @vindex default-enable-multibyte-characters To turn off multibyte character support by default, start Emacs with the @samp{--unibyte} option (@pxref{Initial Options}), or set the environment variable @env{EMACS_UNIBYTE}. You can also customize @code{enable-multibyte-characters} or, equivalently, directly set the variable @code{default-enable-multibyte-characters} to @code{nil} in your init file to have basically the same effect as @samp{--unibyte}. @findex toggle-enable-multibyte-characters To convert a unibyte session to a multibyte session, set @code{default-enable-multibyte-characters} to @code{t}. Buffers which were created in the unibyte session before you turn on multibyte support will stay unibyte. You can turn on multibyte support in a specific buffer by invoking the command @code{toggle-enable-multibyte-characters} in that buffer. @cindex Lisp files, and multibyte operation @cindex multibyte operation, and Lisp files @cindex unibyte operation, and Lisp files @cindex init file, and non-ASCII characters @cindex environment variables, and non-ASCII characters With @samp{--unibyte}, multibyte strings are not created during initialization from the values of environment variables, @file{/etc/passwd} entries etc.@: that contain non-ASCII 8-bit characters. Emacs normally loads Lisp files as multibyte, regardless of whether you used @samp{--unibyte}. This includes the Emacs initialization file, @file{.emacs}, and the initialization files of Emacs packages such as Gnus. However, you can specify unibyte loading for a particular Lisp file, by putting @w{@samp{-*-unibyte: t;-*-}} in a comment on the first line. Then that file is always loaded as unibyte text, even if you did not start Emacs with @samp{--unibyte}. The motivation for these conventions is that it is more reliable to always load any particular Lisp file in the same way. However, you can load a Lisp file as unibyte, on any one occasion, by typing @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c raw-text @key{RET}} immediately before loading it. The mode line indicates whether multibyte character support is enabled in the current buffer. If it is, there are two or more characters (most often two dashes) before the colon near the beginning of the mode line. When multibyte characters are not enabled, just one dash precedes the colon. @node Language Environments @section Language Environments @cindex language environments All supported character sets are supported in Emacs buffers whenever multibyte characters are enabled; there is no need to select a particular language in order to display its characters in an Emacs buffer. However, it is important to select a @dfn{language environment} in order to set various defaults. The language environment really represents a choice of preferred script (more or less) rather than a choice of language. The language environment controls which coding systems to recognize when reading text (@pxref{Recognize Coding}). This applies to files, incoming mail, netnews, and any other text you read into Emacs. It may also specify the default coding system to use when you create a file. Each language environment also specifies a default input method. @findex set-language-environment @vindex current-language-environment To select a language environment, you can customize the variable @code{current-language-environment} or use the command @kbd{M-x set-language-environment}. It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use this command, because the effects apply globally to the Emacs session. The supported language environments include: @cindex Euro sign @cindex UTF-8 @quotation Chinese-BIG5, Chinese-CNS, Chinese-GB, Cyrillic-ALT, Cyrillic-ISO, Cyrillic-KOI8, Czech, Devanagari, Dutch, English, Ethiopic, German, Greek, Hebrew, IPA, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Latin-1, Latin-2, Latin-3, Latin-4, Latin-5, Latin-8 (Celtic), Latin-9 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign), Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, UTF-8 (for a setup which prefers Unicode characters and files encoded in UTF-8), and Vietnamese. @end quotation @cindex fonts for various scripts @cindex Intlfonts package, installation To display the script(s) used by your language environment on a graphical display, you need to have a suitable font. If some of the characters appear as empty boxes, you should install the GNU Intlfonts package, which includes fonts for all supported scripts.@footnote{If you run Emacs on X, you need to inform the X server about the location of the newly installed fonts with the following commands: @example xset fp+ /usr/local/share/emacs/fonts xset fp rehash @end example } @xref{Fontsets}, for more details about setting up your fonts. @findex set-locale-environment @vindex locale-language-names @vindex locale-charset-language-names @cindex locales Some operating systems let you specify the character-set locale you are using by setting the locale environment variables @env{LC_ALL}, @env{LC_CTYPE}, or @env{LANG}.@footnote{If more than one of these is set, the first one that is nonempty specifies your locale for this purpose.} During startup, Emacs looks up your character-set locale's name in the system locale alias table, matches its canonical name against entries in the value of the variables @code{locale-charset-language-names} and @code{locale-language-names}, and selects the corresponding language environment if a match is found. (The former variable overrides the latter.) It also adjusts the display table and terminal coding system, the locale coding system, the preferred coding system as needed for the locale, and---last but not least---the way Emacs decodes non-ASCII characters sent by your keyboard. 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 messages. But if your locale matches an entry in the variable @code{locale-preferred-coding-systems}, Emacs uses the corresponding coding system instead. For example, if the locale @samp{ja_JP.PCK} matches @code{japanese-shift-jis} in @code{locale-preferred-coding-systems}, Emacs uses that encoding even though it might normally use @code{japanese-iso-8bit}. You can override the language environment chosen at startup with explicit use of the command @code{set-language-environment}, or with customization of @code{current-language-environment} in your init file. @kindex C-h L @findex describe-language-environment To display information about the effects of a certain language environment @var{lang-env}, use the command @kbd{C-h L @var{lang-env} @key{RET}} (@code{describe-language-environment}). This tells you which languages this language environment is useful for, and lists the character sets, coding systems, and input methods that go with it. It also shows some sample text to illustrate scripts used in this language environment. By default, this command describes the chosen language environment. @vindex set-language-environment-hook You can customize any language environment with the normal hook @code{set-language-environment-hook}. The command @code{set-language-environment} runs that hook after setting up the new language environment. The hook functions can test for a specific language environment by checking the variable @code{current-language-environment}. This hook is where you should put non-default settings for specific language environment, such as coding systems for keyboard input and terminal output, the default input method, etc. @vindex exit-language-environment-hook Before it starts to set up the new language environment, @code{set-language-environment} first runs the hook @code{exit-language-environment-hook}. This hook is useful for undoing customizations that were made with @code{set-language-environment-hook}. For instance, if you set up a special key binding in a specific language environment using @code{set-language-environment-hook}, you should set up @code{exit-language-environment-hook} to restore the normal binding for that key. @node Input Methods @section Input Methods @cindex input methods An @dfn{input method} is a kind of character conversion designed specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language 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 methods convert the sequence @kbd{a'} into a single accented letter. These input methods have no special commands of their own; all they do is compose sequences of printing characters. The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed by composition. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way. First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are mapped into one syllable sign. 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 just one row at a time, in the echo area; @code{(@var{i}/@var{j})} appears at the beginning, to indicate that this is the @var{i}th row out of a total of @var{j} rows. Type @kbd{C-n} or @kbd{C-p} to display the next row or the previous row. Type @kbd{C-f} and @kbd{C-b} to move forward and backward among the alternatives in the current row. As you do this, Emacs highlights the current alternative with a special color; type @code{C-@key{SPC}} to select the current alternative and use it as input. The alternatives in the row are also numbered; the number appears before the alternative. Typing a digit @var{n} selects the @var{n}th 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; to select one of them, use @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p} to cycle through the alternatives. Sometimes it is useful to cut off input method processing so that the characters you have just entered will not combine with subsequent characters. For example, in input method @code{latin-1-postfix}, the sequence @kbd{e '} combines to form an @samp{e} with an accent. What if you want to enter them as separate characters? One way is to type the accent twice; this is a special feature for entering the separate letter and accent. For example, @kbd{e ' '} gives you the two characters @samp{e'}. Another way is to type another letter after the @kbd{e}---something that won't combine with that---and immediately delete it. For example, you could type @kbd{e e @key{DEL} '} to get separate @samp{e} and @samp{'}. Another method, more general but not quite as easy to type, is to use @kbd{C-\ C-\} between two characters to stop them from combining. This is the command @kbd{C-\} (@code{toggle-input-method}) used twice. @ifinfo @xref{Select Input Method}. @end ifinfo @cindex incremental search, input method interference @kbd{C-\ C-\} is especially useful inside an incremental search, because it stops waiting for more characters to combine, and starts searching for what you have already entered. @vindex input-method-verbose-flag @vindex input-method-highlight-flag The variables @code{input-method-highlight-flag} and @code{input-method-verbose-flag} control how input methods explain what is happening. If @code{input-method-highlight-flag} is non-@code{nil}, the partial sequence is highlighted in the buffer (for most input methods---some disable this feature). If @code{input-method-verbose-flag} is non-@code{nil}, the list of possible characters to type next is displayed in the echo area (but not when you are in the minibuffer). @cindex Leim package Input methods are implemented in the separate Leim package: they are available only if the system administrator used Leim when building Emacs. If Emacs was built without Leim, you will find that no input methods are defined. @node Select Input Method @section Selecting an Input Method @table @kbd @item C-\ Enable or disable use of the selected input method. @item C-x @key{RET} C-\ @var{method} @key{RET} Select a new input method for the current buffer. @item C-h I @var{method} @key{RET} @itemx C-h C-\ @var{method} @key{RET} @findex describe-input-method @kindex C-h I @kindex C-h C-\ Describe the input method @var{method} (@code{describe-input-method}). By default, it describes the current input method (if any). This description should give you the full details of how to use any particular input method. @item M-x list-input-methods Display a list of all the supported input methods. @end table @findex set-input-method @vindex current-input-method @kindex C-x RET C-\ To choose an input method for the current buffer, use @kbd{C-x @key{RET} C-\} (@code{set-input-method}). This command reads the input method name from the minibuffer; the name normally starts with the language environment that it is meant to be used with. The variable @code{current-input-method} records which input method is selected. @findex toggle-input-method @kindex C-\ Input methods use various sequences of ASCII characters to stand for non-ASCII characters. Sometimes it is useful to turn off the input method temporarily. To do this, type @kbd{C-\} (@code{toggle-input-method}). To reenable the input method, type @kbd{C-\} again. If you type @kbd{C-\} and you have not yet selected an input method, it prompts for you to specify one. This has the same effect as using @kbd{C-x @key{RET} C-\} to specify an input method. When invoked with a numeric argument, as in @kbd{C-u C-\}, @code{toggle-input-method} always prompts you for an input method, suggesting the most recently selected one as the default. @vindex default-input-method Selecting a language environment specifies a default input method for use in various buffers. When you have a default input method, you can select it in the current buffer by typing @kbd{C-\}. The variable @code{default-input-method} specifies the default input method (@code{nil} means there is none). In some language environments, which support several different input methods, you might want to use an input method different from the default chosen by @code{set-language-environment}. You can instruct Emacs to select a different default input method for a certain language environment, if you wish, by using @code{set-language-environment-hook} (@pxref{Language Environments, set-language-environment-hook}). For example: @lisp (defun my-chinese-setup () "Set up my private Chinese environment." (if (equal current-language-environment "Chinese-GB") (setq default-input-method "chinese-tonepy"))) (add-hook 'set-language-environment-hook 'my-chinese-setup) @end lisp @noindent This sets the default input method to be @code{chinese-tonepy} whenever you choose a Chinese-GB language environment. @findex quail-set-keyboard-layout Some input methods for alphabetic scripts work by (in effect) remapping the keyboard to emulate various keyboard layouts commonly used for those scripts. How to do this remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify which layout your keyboard has, use the command @kbd{M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout}. @findex list-input-methods To display a list of all the supported input methods, type @kbd{M-x list-input-methods}. The list gives information about each input method, including the string that stands for it in the mode line. @node Multibyte Conversion @section Unibyte and Multibyte Non-ASCII characters When multibyte characters are enabled, character codes 0240 (octal) through 0377 (octal) are not really legitimate in the buffer. The valid non-ASCII printing characters have codes that start from 0400. If you type a self-inserting character in the range 0240 through 0377, or if you use @kbd{C-q} to insert one, Emacs assumes you intended to use one of the ISO Latin-@var{n} character sets, and converts it to the Emacs code representing that Latin-@var{n} character. You select @emph{which} ISO Latin character set to use through your choice of language environment @iftex (see above). @end iftex @ifinfo (@pxref{Language Environments}). @end ifinfo If you do not specify a choice, the default is Latin-1. If you insert a character in the range 0200 through 0237, which forms the @code{eight-bit-control} character set, it is inserted literally. You should normally avoid doing this since buffers containing such characters have to be written out in either the @code{emacs-mule} or @code{raw-text} coding system, which is usually not what you want. @node Coding Systems @section Coding Systems @cindex coding systems Users of various languages have established many more-or-less standard coding systems for representing them. Emacs does not use these coding systems internally; instead, it converts from various coding systems to its own system when reading data, and converts the internal coding system to other coding systems when writing data. Conversion is possible in reading or writing files, in sending or receiving from the terminal, and in exchanging data with subprocesses. Emacs assigns a name to each coding system. Most coding systems are used for one language, and the name of the coding system starts with the language name. Some coding systems are used for several languages; their names usually start with @samp{iso}. There are also special coding systems @code{no-conversion}, @code{raw-text} and @code{emacs-mule} which do not convert printing characters at all. @cindex international files from DOS/Windows systems A special class of coding systems, collectively known as @dfn{codepages}, is designed to support text encoded by MS-Windows and MS-DOS software. To use any of these systems, you need to create it with @kbd{M-x codepage-setup}. @xref{MS-DOS and MULE}. After creating the coding system for the codepage, you can use it as any other coding system. For example, to visit a file encoded in codepage 850, type @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c cp850 @key{RET} C-x C-f @var{filename} @key{RET}}. In addition to converting various representations of non-ASCII characters, a coding system can perform end-of-line conversion. Emacs handles three different conventions for how to separate lines in a file: newline, carriage-return linefeed, and just carriage-return. @table @kbd @item C-h C @var{coding} @key{RET} Describe coding system @var{coding}. @item C-h C @key{RET} Describe the coding systems currently in use. @item M-x list-coding-systems Display a list of all the supported coding systems. @end table @kindex C-h C @findex describe-coding-system The command @kbd{C-h C} (@code{describe-coding-system}) displays information about particular coding systems. You can specify a coding system name as the argument; alternatively, with an empty argument, it describes the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, both in the current buffer and as the defaults, and the priority list for recognizing coding systems (@pxref{Recognize Coding}). @findex list-coding-systems To display a list of all the supported coding systems, type @kbd{M-x list-coding-systems}. The list gives information about each coding system, including the letter that stands for it in the mode line (@pxref{Mode Line}). @cindex end-of-line conversion @cindex MS-DOS end-of-line conversion @cindex Macintosh end-of-line conversion Each of the coding systems that appear in this list---except for @code{no-conversion}, which means no conversion of any kind---specifies how and whether to convert printing characters, but leaves the choice of end-of-line conversion to be decided based on the contents of each file. For example, if the file appears to use the sequence carriage-return linefeed to separate lines, DOS end-of-line conversion will be used. Each of the listed coding systems has three variants which specify exactly what to do for end-of-line conversion: @table @code @item @dots{}-unix Don't do any end-of-line conversion; assume the file uses newline to separate lines. (This is the convention normally used on Unix and GNU systems.) @item @dots{}-dos Assume the file uses carriage-return linefeed to separate lines, and do the appropriate conversion. (This is the convention normally used on Microsoft systems.@footnote{It is also specified for MIME @samp{text/*} bodies and in other network transport contexts. It is different from the SGML reference syntax record-start/record-end format which Emacs doesn't support directly.}) @item @dots{}-mac Assume the file uses carriage-return to separate lines, and do the appropriate conversion. (This is the convention normally used on the Macintosh system.) @end table These variant coding systems are omitted from the @code{list-coding-systems} display for brevity, since they are entirely predictable. For example, the coding system @code{iso-latin-1} has variants @code{iso-latin-1-unix}, @code{iso-latin-1-dos} and @code{iso-latin-1-mac}. The coding system @code{raw-text} is good for a file which is mainly ASCII text, but may contain byte values above 127 which are not meant to encode non-ASCII characters. With @code{raw-text}, Emacs copies those byte values unchanged, and sets @code{enable-multibyte-characters} to @code{nil} in the current buffer so that they will be interpreted properly. @code{raw-text} handles end-of-line conversion in the usual way, based on the data encountered, and has the usual three variants to specify the kind of end-of-line conversion to use. In contrast, the coding system @code{no-conversion} specifies no character code conversion at all---none for non-ASCII byte values and none for end of line. This is useful for reading or writing binary files, tar files, and other files that must be examined verbatim. It, too, sets @code{enable-multibyte-characters} to @code{nil}. The easiest way to edit a file with no conversion of any kind is with the @kbd{M-x find-file-literally} command. This uses @code{no-conversion}, and also suppresses other Emacs features that might convert the file contents before you see them. @xref{Visiting}. The coding system @code{emacs-mule} means that the file contains non-ASCII characters stored with the internal Emacs encoding. It handles end-of-line conversion based on the data encountered, and has the usual three variants to specify the kind of end-of-line conversion. @node Recognize Coding @section Recognizing Coding Systems Emacs tries to recognize which coding system to use for a given text as an integral part of reading that text. (This applies to files being read, output from subprocesses, text from X selections, etc.) Emacs can select the right coding system automatically most of the time---once you have specified your preferences. Some coding systems can be recognized or distinguished by which byte sequences appear in the data. However, there are coding systems that cannot be distinguished, not even potentially. For example, there is no way to distinguish between Latin-1 and Latin-2; they use the same byte values with different meanings. Emacs handles this situation by means of a priority list of coding systems. Whenever Emacs reads a file, if you do not specify the coding system to use, Emacs checks the data against each coding system, starting with the first in priority and working down the list, until it finds a coding system that fits the data. Then it converts the file contents assuming that they are represented in this coding system. The priority list of coding systems depends on the selected language environment (@pxref{Language Environments}). For example, if you use French, you probably want Emacs to prefer Latin-1 to Latin-2; if you use Czech, you probably want Latin-2 to be preferred. This is one of the reasons to specify a language environment. @findex prefer-coding-system However, you can alter the coding system priority list in detail with the command @kbd{M-x prefer-coding-system}. This command reads the name of a coding system from the minibuffer, and adds it to the front of the priority list, so that it is preferred to all others. If you use this command several times, each use adds one element to the front of the priority 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 @code{modify-coding-system-alist} for adding elements to this list. For example, to read and write all @samp{.txt} files using the coding system @code{china-iso-8bit}, you can execute this Lisp expression: @smallexample (modify-coding-system-alist 'file "\\.txt\\'" 'china-iso-8bit) @end smallexample @noindent The first argument should be @code{file}, the second argument should be a regular expression that determines which files this applies to, and the third argument says which coding system to use for these files. @vindex inhibit-eol-conversion @cindex DOS-style end-of-line display Emacs recognizes which kind of end-of-line conversion to use based on the contents of the file: if it sees only carriage-returns, or only carriage-return linefeed sequences, then it chooses the end-of-line conversion accordingly. You can inhibit the automatic use of end-of-line conversion by setting the variable @code{inhibit-eol-conversion} to non-@code{nil}. If you do that, DOS-style files will be displayed with the @samp{^M} characters visible in the buffer; some people prefer this to the more subtle @samp{(DOS)} end-of-line type indication near the left edge of the mode line (@pxref{Mode Line, eol-mnemonic}). @vindex inhibit-iso-escape-detection @cindex escape sequences in files By default, the automatic detection of coding system is sensitive to escape sequences. If Emacs sees a sequence of characters that begin with an escape character, and the sequence is valid as an ISO-2022 code, that tells Emacs to use one of the ISO-2022 encodings to decode the file. However, there may be cases that you want to read escape sequences in a file as is. In such a case, you can set the variable @code{inhibit-iso-escape-detection} to non-@code{nil}. Then the code detection ignores any escape sequences, and never uses an ISO-2022 encoding. The result is that all escape sequences become visible in the buffer. The default value of @code{inhibit-iso-escape-detection} is @code{nil}. We recommend that you not change it permanently, only for one specific operation. That's because many Emacs Lisp source files in the Emacs distribution contain non-ASCII characters encoded in the coding system @code{iso-2022-7bit}, and they won't be decoded correctly when you visit those files if you suppress the escape sequence detection. @vindex coding 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 @vindex auto-coding-functions The variables @code{auto-coding-alist}, @code{auto-coding-regexp-alist} and @code{auto-coding-functions} are the strongest way to specify the coding system for certain patterns of file names, or for files containing certain patterns; these variables even override @samp{-*-coding:-*-} tags in the file itself. Emacs uses @code{auto-coding-alist} for tar and archive files, to prevent it from being confused by a @samp{-*-coding:-*-} tag in a member of the archive and thinking it applies to the archive file as a whole. Likewise, Emacs uses @code{auto-coding-regexp-alist} to ensure that RMAIL files, whose names in general don't match any particular pattern, are decoded correctly. One of the builtin @code{auto-coding-functions} detects the encoding for XML files. If Emacs recognizes the encoding of a file incorrectly, you can reread the file using the correct coding system by typing @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c @var{coding-system} @key{RET} M-x revert-buffer @key{RET}}. To see what coding system Emacs actually used to decode the file, look at the coding system mnemonic letter near the left edge of the mode line (@pxref{Mode Line}), or type @kbd{C-h C @key{RET}}. @findex unify-8859-on-decoding-mode The command @code{unify-8859-on-decoding-mode} enables a mode that ``unifies'' the Latin alphabets when decoding text. This works by converting all non-ASCII Latin-@var{n} characters to either Latin-1 or Unicode characters. This way it is easier to use various Latin-@var{n} alphabets together. In a future Emacs version we hope to move towards full Unicode support and complete unification of character sets. @vindex buffer-file-coding-system Once Emacs has chosen a coding system for a buffer, it stores that coding system in @code{buffer-file-coding-system} and uses that coding system, by default, for operations that write from this buffer into a file. This includes the commands @code{save-buffer} and @code{write-region}. If you want to write files from this buffer using a different coding system, you can specify a different coding system for the buffer using @code{set-buffer-file-coding-system} (@pxref{Specify Coding}). You can insert any possible character into any Emacs buffer, but 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 its value in @code{buffer-file-coding-system}. Otherwise, Emacs displays a list of coding systems suitable for encoding the buffer's contents, and asks you to choose one of those coding systems. If you insert the unsuitable characters in a mail message, Emacs behaves a bit differently. It additionally checks whether the most-preferred coding system is recommended for use in MIME messages; if not, Emacs tells you that the most-preferred coding system is not recommended and prompts you for another coding system. This is so you won't inadvertently send a message encoded in a way that your recipient's mail software will have difficulty decoding. (If you do want to use the most-preferred coding system, you can still type its name in response to the question.) @vindex sendmail-coding-system When you send a message with Mail mode (@pxref{Sending Mail}), Emacs has four different ways to determine the coding system to use for encoding the message text. It tries the buffer's own value of @code{buffer-file-coding-system}, if that is non-@code{nil}. Otherwise, it uses the value of @code{sendmail-coding-system}, if that is non-@code{nil}. The third way is to use the default coding system for new files, which is controlled by your choice of language environment, if that is non-@code{nil}. If all of these three values are @code{nil}, Emacs encodes outgoing mail using the Latin-1 coding system. @vindex rmail-decode-mime-charset When you get new mail in Rmail, each message is translated automatically from the coding system it is written in, as if it were a separate file. This uses the priority list of coding systems that you have specified. If a MIME message specifies a character set, Rmail obeys that specification, unless @code{rmail-decode-mime-charset} is @code{nil}. @vindex rmail-file-coding-system For reading and saving Rmail files themselves, Emacs uses the coding system specified by the variable @code{rmail-file-coding-system}. The default value is @code{nil}, which means that Rmail files are not translated (they are read and written in the Emacs internal character code). @node Specify Coding @section Specifying a Coding System In cases where Emacs does not automatically choose the right coding system, you can use these commands to specify one: @table @kbd @item C-x @key{RET} f @var{coding} @key{RET} Use coding system @var{coding} for the visited file in the current buffer. @item C-x @key{RET} c @var{coding} @key{RET} Specify coding system @var{coding} for the immediately following command. @item C-x @key{RET} k @var{coding} @key{RET} Use coding system @var{coding} for keyboard input. @item C-x @key{RET} t @var{coding} @key{RET} Use coding system @var{coding} for terminal output. @item C-x @key{RET} p @var{input-coding} @key{RET} @var{output-coding} @key{RET} Use coding systems @var{input-coding} and @var{output-coding} for subprocess input and output in the current buffer. @item C-x @key{RET} x @var{coding} @key{RET} Use coding system @var{coding} for transferring selections to and from other programs through the window system. @item C-x @key{RET} X @var{coding} @key{RET} Use coding system @var{coding} for transferring @emph{one} selection---the next one---to or from the window system. @end table @kindex C-x RET f @findex set-buffer-file-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} f} (@code{set-buffer-file-coding-system}) specifies the file coding system for the current buffer---in other words, which coding system to use when saving or rereading the visited file. You specify which coding system using the minibuffer. Since this command applies to a file you have already visited, it affects only the way the file is saved. @kindex C-x RET c @findex universal-coding-system-argument Another way to specify the coding system for a file is when you visit the file. First use the command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c} (@code{universal-coding-system-argument}); this command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name. After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system is used for @emph{the immediately following command}. So if the immediately following command is @kbd{C-x C-f}, for example, it reads the file using that coding system (and records the coding system for when the file is saved). Or if the immediately following command is @kbd{C-x C-w}, it writes the file using that coding system. Other file commands affected by a specified coding system include @kbd{C-x C-i} and @kbd{C-x C-v}, as well as the other-window variants of @kbd{C-x C-f}. @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c} also affects commands that start subprocesses, including @kbd{M-x shell} (@pxref{Shell}). However, if the immediately following command does not use the coding system, then @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c} ultimately has no effect. An easy way to visit a file with no conversion is with the @kbd{M-x find-file-literally} command. @xref{Visiting}. @vindex default-buffer-file-coding-system The variable @code{default-buffer-file-coding-system} specifies the choice of coding system to use when you create a new file. It applies when you find a new file, and when you create a buffer and then save it in a file. Selecting a language environment typically sets this variable to a good choice of default coding system for that language environment. @kindex C-x RET t @findex set-terminal-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} t} (@code{set-terminal-coding-system}) specifies the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are translated into that coding system. This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built to support specific languages or character sets---for example, European terminals that support one of the ISO Latin character sets. You need to specify the terminal coding system when using multibyte text, so that Emacs knows which characters the terminal can actually handle. By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all, unless Emacs can deduce the proper coding system from your terminal type or your locale specification (@pxref{Language Environments}). @kindex C-x RET k @findex set-keyboard-coding-system @vindex keyboard-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} k} (@code{set-keyboard-coding-system}) or the Custom option @code{keyboard-coding-system} specifies the coding system for keyboard input. Character-code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters---for example, some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it. By default, keyboard input is translated based on your system locale setting. If your terminal does not really support the encoding implied by your locale (for example, if you find it inserts a non-ASCII character if you type @kbd{M-i}), you will need to set @code{keyboard-coding-system} to @code{nil} to turn off encoding. You can do this by putting @lisp (set-keyboard-coding-system nil) @end lisp @noindent in your @file{~/.emacs} file. There is a similarity between using a coding system translation for keyboard input, and using an input method: both define sequences of keyboard input that translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed to be convenient for interactive use by humans, and the sequences that are translated are typically sequences of ASCII printing characters. Coding systems typically translate sequences of non-graphic characters. @kindex C-x RET x @kindex C-x RET X @findex set-selection-coding-system @findex set-next-selection-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} x} (@code{set-selection-coding-system}) specifies the coding system for sending selected text to the window system, and for receiving the text of selections made in other applications. This command applies to all subsequent selections, until you override it by using the command again. The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} X} (@code{set-next-selection-coding-system}) specifies the coding system for the next selection made in Emacs or read by Emacs. @kindex C-x RET p @findex set-buffer-process-coding-system The command @kbd{C-x @key{RET} p} (@code{set-buffer-process-coding-system}) specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess. This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command in the corresponding buffer. The default for translation of process input and output depends on the current language environment. @vindex file-name-coding-system @cindex file names with non-ASCII characters The variable @code{file-name-coding-system} specifies a coding system to use for encoding file names. If you set the variable to a coding system name (as a Lisp symbol or a string), Emacs encodes file names using that coding system for all file operations. This makes it possible to use non-ASCII characters in file names---or, at least, those non-ASCII characters which the specified coding system can encode. If @code{file-name-coding-system} is @code{nil}, Emacs uses a default coding system determined by the selected language environment. In the default language environment, any non-ASCII characters in file names are not encoded specially; they appear in the file system using the internal Emacs representation. @strong{Warning:} if you change @code{file-name-coding-system} (or the language environment) in the middle of an Emacs session, problems can result if you have already visited files whose names were encoded using the earlier coding system and cannot be encoded (or are encoded differently) under the new coding system. If you try to save one of these buffers under the visited file name, saving may use the wrong file name, or it may get an error. If such a problem happens, use @kbd{C-x C-w} to specify a new file name for that buffer. @vindex locale-coding-system @cindex decoding non-ASCII keyboard input on X The variable @code{locale-coding-system} specifies a coding system to use when encoding and decoding system strings such as system error messages and @code{format-time-string} formats and time stamps. That coding system is also used for decoding non-ASCII keyboard input on X Window systems. You should choose a coding system that is compatible with the underlying system's text representation, which is normally specified by one of the environment variables @env{LC_ALL}, @env{LC_CTYPE}, and @env{LANG}. (The first one, in the order specified above, whose value is nonempty is the one that determines the text representation.) @node Fontsets @section Fontsets @cindex fontsets A font for X typically defines shapes for a single alphabet or script. Therefore, displaying the entire range of scripts that Emacs supports requires a collection of many fonts. In Emacs, such a collection is called a @dfn{fontset}. A fontset is defined by a list of fonts, each assigned to handle a range of character codes. Each fontset has a name, like a font. The available X fonts are defined by the X server; fontsets, however, are defined within Emacs itself. Once you have defined a fontset, you can use it within Emacs by specifying its name, anywhere that you could use a single font. Of course, Emacs fontsets can use only the fonts that the X server supports; if certain characters appear on the screen as hollow boxes, this means that the fontset in use for them has no font for those characters.@footnote{The Emacs installation instructions have information on additional font support.} Emacs creates two fontsets automatically: the @dfn{standard fontset} and the @dfn{startup fontset}. The standard fontset is most likely to have fonts for a wide variety of non-ASCII characters; however, this is not the default for Emacs to use. (By default, Emacs tries to find a font that has bold and italic variants.) You can specify use of the standard fontset with the @samp{-fn} option, or with the @samp{Font} X resource (@pxref{Font X}). For example, @example emacs -fn fontset-standard @end example A fontset does not necessarily specify a font for every character code. If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot display that character properly. It will display that character as an empty box instead. @node Defining Fontsets @section Defining fontsets @vindex standard-fontset-spec @cindex standard fontset Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value of @code{standard-fontset-spec}. This fontset's name is @example -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-16-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-standard @end example @noindent or just @samp{fontset-standard} for short. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the standard fontset are created automatically. Their names have @samp{bold} instead of @samp{medium}, or @samp{i} instead of @samp{r}, or both. @cindex startup fontset If you specify a default ASCII font with the @samp{Font} resource or the @samp{-fn} argument, Emacs generates a fontset from it automatically. This is the @dfn{startup fontset} and its name is @code{fontset-startup}. It does this by replacing the @var{foundry}, @var{family}, @var{add_style}, and @var{average_width} fields of the font name with @samp{*}, replacing @var{charset_registry} field with @samp{fontset}, and replacing @var{charset_encoding} field with @samp{startup}, then using the resulting string to specify a fontset. For instance, if you start Emacs this way, @example emacs -fn "*courier-medium-r-normal--14-140-*-iso8859-1" @end example @noindent Emacs generates the following fontset and uses it for the initial X window frame: @example -*-*-medium-r-normal-*-14-140-*-*-*-*-fontset-startup @end example With the X resource @samp{Emacs.Font}, you can specify a fontset name just like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset name in a wildcard resource like @samp{Emacs*Font}---that wildcard specification matches various other resources, such as for menus, and menus cannot handle fontsets. You can specify additional fontsets using X resources named @samp{Fontset-@var{n}}, where @var{n} is an integer starting from 0. The resource value should have this form: @smallexample @var{fontpattern}, @r{[}@var{charsetname}:@var{fontname}@r{]@dots{}} @end smallexample @noindent @var{fontpattern} should have the form of a standard X font name, except for the last two fields. They should have the form @samp{fontset-@var{alias}}. The fontset has two names, one long and one short. The long name is @var{fontpattern}. The short name is @samp{fontset-@var{alias}}. You can refer to the fontset by either name. The construct @samp{@var{charset}:@var{font}} specifies which font to use (in this fontset) for one particular character set. Here, @var{charset} is the name of a character set, and @var{font} is the font to use for that character set. You can use this construct any number of times in defining one fontset. For the other character sets, Emacs chooses a font based on @var{fontpattern}. It replaces @samp{fontset-@var{alias}} with values that describe the character set. For the ASCII character font, @samp{fontset-@var{alias}} is replaced with @samp{ISO8859-1}. In addition, when several consecutive fields are wildcards, Emacs collapses them into a single wildcard. This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts. Fonts made by scaling larger fonts are not usable for editing, and scaling a smaller font is not useful because it is better to use the smaller font in its own size, which is what Emacs does. Thus if @var{fontpattern} is this, @example -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24 @end example @noindent the font specification for ASCII characters would be this: @example -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1 @end example @noindent and the font specification for Chinese GB2312 characters would be this: @example -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-gb2312*-* @end example You may not have any Chinese font matching the above font specification. Most X distributions include only Chinese fonts that have @samp{song ti} or @samp{fangsong ti} in @var{family} field. In such a case, @samp{Fontset-@var{n}} can be specified as below: @smallexample Emacs.Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24,\ chinese-gb2312:-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-gb2312*-* @end smallexample @noindent Then, the font specifications for all but Chinese GB2312 characters have @samp{fixed} in the @var{family} field, and the font specification for Chinese GB2312 characters has a wild card @samp{*} in the @var{family} field. @findex create-fontset-from-fontset-spec The function that processes the fontset resource value to create the fontset is called @code{create-fontset-from-fontset-spec}. You can also call this function explicitly to create a fontset. @xref{Font X}, for more information about font naming in X. @node Undisplayable Characters @section Undisplayable Characters There may be a some non-ASCII characters that your terminal cannot display. Most non-windowing terminals support just a single character set (use the variable @code{default-terminal-coding-system} (@pxref{Specify Coding}) to tell Emacs which one); characters which can't be encoded in that coding system are displayed as @samp{?} by default. Windowing terminals can display a broader range of characters, but you may not have fonts installed for all of them; characters that have no font appear as a hollow box. If you use Latin-1 characters but your terminal can't display Latin-1, you can arrange to display mnemonic ASCII sequences instead, e.g.@: @samp{"o} for o-umlaut. Load the library @file{iso-ascii} to do this. @vindex latin1-display If your terminal can display Latin-1, you can display characters from other European character sets using a mixture of equivalent Latin-1 characters and ASCII mnemonics. Use the Custom option @code{latin1-display} to enable this. The mnemonic ASCII sequences mostly correspond to those of the prefix input methods. @node Single-Byte Character Support @section Single-byte Character Set Support @cindex European character sets @cindex accented characters @cindex ISO Latin character sets @cindex Unibyte operation The ISO 8859 Latin-@var{n} character sets define character codes in the range 0240 to 0377 octal (160 to 255 decimal) to handle the accented letters and punctuation needed by various European languages (and some non-European ones). If you disable multibyte characters, Emacs can still handle @emph{one} of these character codes at a time. To specify @emph{which} of these codes to use, invoke @kbd{M-x set-language-environment} and specify a suitable language environment such as @samp{Latin-@var{n}}. For more information about unibyte operation, see @ref{Enabling Multibyte}. Note particularly that you probably want to ensure that your initialization files are read as unibyte if they contain non-ASCII characters. @vindex unibyte-display-via-language-environment Emacs can also display those characters, provided the terminal or font in use supports them. This works automatically. Alternatively, if you are using a window system, Emacs can also display single-byte characters through fontsets, in effect by displaying the equivalent multibyte characters according to the current language environment. To request this, set the variable @code{unibyte-display-via-language-environment} to a non-@code{nil} value. @cindex @code{iso-ascii} library If your terminal does not support display of the Latin-1 character set, Emacs can display these characters as ASCII sequences which at least give you a clear idea of what the characters are. To do this, load the library @code{iso-ascii}. Similar libraries for other Latin-@var{n} character sets could be implemented, but we don't have them yet. @findex standard-display-8bit @cindex 8-bit display Normally non-ISO-8859 characters (decimal codes between 128 and 159 inclusive) are displayed as octal escapes. You can change this for non-standard ``extended'' versions of ISO-8859 character sets by using the function @code{standard-display-8bit} in the @code{disp-table} library. There are several ways you can input single-byte non-ASCII characters: @itemize @bullet @cindex 8-bit input @item If your keyboard can generate character codes 128 (decimal) and up, representing non-ASCII characters, you can type those character codes directly. On a windowing terminal, you should not need to do anything special to use these keys; they should simply work. On a text-only terminal, you should use the command @code{M-x set-keyboard-coding-system} or the Custom option @code{keyboard-coding-system} to specify which coding system your keyboard uses (@pxref{Specify Coding}). Enabling this feature will probably require you to use @kbd{ESC} to type Meta characters; however, on a Linux console or in @code{xterm}, you can arrange for Meta to be converted to @kbd{ESC} and still be able type 8-bit characters present directly on the keyboard or using @kbd{Compose} or @kbd{AltGr} keys. @xref{User Input}. @item You can use an input method for the selected language environment. @xref{Input Methods}. When you use an input method in a unibyte buffer, the non-ASCII character you specify with it is converted to unibyte. @kindex C-x 8 @cindex @code{iso-transl} library @cindex compose character @cindex dead character @item For Latin-1 only, you can use the key @kbd{C-x 8} as a ``compose character'' prefix for entry of non-ASCII Latin-1 printing characters. @kbd{C-x 8} is good for insertion (in the minibuffer as well as other buffers), for searching, and in any other context where a key sequence is allowed. @kbd{C-x 8} works by loading the @code{iso-transl} library. Once that library is loaded, the @key{ALT} modifier key, if you have one, serves the same purpose as @kbd{C-x 8}; use @key{ALT} together with an accent character to modify the following letter. In addition, if you have keys for the Latin-1 ``dead accent characters,'' they too are defined to compose with the following character, once @code{iso-transl} is loaded. Use @kbd{C-x 8 C-h} to list the available translations as mnemonic command names. @item @cindex @code{iso-acc} library @cindex ISO Accents mode @findex iso-accents-mode @cindex Latin-1, Latin-2 and Latin-3 input mode For Latin-1, Latin-2 and Latin-3, @kbd{M-x iso-accents-mode} enables a minor mode that works much like the @code{latin-1-prefix} input method, but does not depend on having the input methods installed. This mode is buffer-local. It can be customized for various languages with @kbd{M-x iso-accents-customize}. @end itemize @node Charsets @section Charsets @cindex charsets Emacs groups all supported characters into disjoint @dfn{charsets}. Each character code belongs to one and only one charset. For historical reasons, Emacs typically divides an 8-bit character code for an extended version of ASCII into two charsets: ASCII, which covers the codes 0 through 127, plus another charset which covers the ``right-hand part'' (the codes 128 and up). For instance, the characters of Latin-1 include the Emacs charset @code{ascii} plus the Emacs charset @code{latin-iso8859-1}. Emacs characters belonging to different charsets may look the same, but they are still different characters. For example, the letter @samp{o} with acute accent in charset @code{latin-iso8859-1}, used for Latin-1, is different from the letter @samp{o} with acute accent in charset @code{latin-iso8859-2}, used for Latin-2. @findex list-charset-chars @cindex characters in a certain charset @findex describe-character-set There are two commands for obtaining information about Emacs charsets. The command @kbd{M-x list-charset-chars} prompts for a name of a character set, and displays all the characters in that character set. The command @kbd{M-x describe-character-set} prompts for a charset name and displays information about that charset, including its internal representation within Emacs. To find out which charset a character in the buffer belongs to, put point before it and type @kbd{C-u C-x =}.