Re: two utf-8 questions

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> 1)
> Even though the following is in my .emacs:

>  (setq default-buffer-file-coding-system 'utf-8)

> when I type 'C-x ret f' I see the prompt:

> Coding system for visited file (default, nil) instead of (default, utf-8)

I think it never said anything else than nil.

> There are contexts where I need to specify utf-8 here, or else the file
> won't be saved in the correct format. This seems to be true even if the
> file header ;; -*- coding: utf-8 -*- is present. Why is this?

This varies a lot between different versions of Emacs (because it's still
being continuously improved).  Also it depends on many more details.
So it's hard to give a useful answer without knowing the version of Emacs
you're using, the locale under which you're running, how much you've munged
the default Mule setup, and then how you've loaded the file, what operations
you've done in between and which command gave you the above problem.

As for obeying the `coding' tag when saving: this has only been added as
a new feature recently in Emacs-CVS.  In earlier code, the `coding' tag is
only used when opening a file (and it's checked for consistency when
saving).


        Stefan