Re: single function to open utf-16 file?

[Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com>]

tom.tulinsky@gmail.com wrote:
> can tell me how to easily open a utf-16 file, or a function for me that
> will open a utf-16 file in PC-win32 Emacs 21.3.1? Currently I have to
> do
> 
>    'C-x C-m c utf-16-le RET' followed by C-x C-f
> 
> I have tried to write a function or create a keyboard macro to do this,
> but they did not work because
> 
>      C-x C-m c (universal-coding-system-argument)
> 
> is some kind of special function and demands the next command be
> entered from the keyboard.
> 
> I want a single elisp function that I can bind to a key.

Do the files begin with a BOM?  If so, something like this should work:

(push '("\\`\xEF\xBB\xBF" . utf-8) auto-coding-regexp-alist)
(push '("\\`\xFE\xFF" . utf-16-be) auto-coding-regexp-alist)
(push '("\\`\xFF\xFE" . utf-16-le) auto-coding-regexp-alist)

Are all your files UTF-16?  If so, this should work:

(prefer-coding-system 'utf-16-le)

If only some of your files are UTF-16 but they can be recognized by
their directory or file name, you can frob the file-coding-system-alist
variable (see the modify-coding-system-alist function).

If you only know for sure that the file is UTF-16 after you visit it
and see it displayed, you can immediately correct that with
`C-x <RET> r utf-16-le <RET>', which is suitable for a keyboard macro.

As a last resort, something like this (cribbed from
universal-coding-system-argument) might work:

(defun find-file-utf-16-le (&rest find-file-args)
   "Temporarily bind coding systems to `utf-16-le' before calling 
`find-file'."
   (interactive)
   (if (interactive-p)
       (let ((prefix-arg current-prefix-arg)
	    (coding-system-for-read coding-system)
	    (coding-system-for-write coding-system)
	    (coding-system-require-warning t))
	(call-interactively 'find-file))
     (apply 'find-file find-file-args)))

-- 
Kevin