Character and font sets for Japanese

Character and font sets for Japanese

[soichi]

HI.  I am not so used to setting Emacs, so please be advised.

Right now I am trying to use org-mode but have encountered a problem in putting entries in Japanese.  When typing in spreadsheet in this language, the cells are deformed and do not align properly.  
I have asked this question in Org-mode ML, then received an answer like,

"When table alignment fails, it usually has to do with character sets where some characters have non-integer width. Org will deal correctly with characters that are one or two or three ASCII characters wide, but not with characters that are, for example, 1.5 ASCII characters wide. To make table alignment work you need to switch to a different character set."

So, the problem comes down to setting character sets.  But I am not even sure the concepts of "character set", "coding", and "font".  This seems very important for myself to keep using Emacs from now on.

Currently, I have set 

;;----------------------------------------
(set-default-font "Inconsolata-11")
(set-face-font 'variable-pitch "Inconsolata-11")
(set-fontset-font (frame-parameter nil 'font)
                  'japanese-jisx0208
                  '("VL Gothic" . "unicode-bmp"))
;;----------------------------------------

I have simply copied this from a site, so I do not really understand which does what ...

                  'japanese-jisx0208

Is this the character set?  Looks like it.

How can I set 

"...one or two or three ASCII characters wide"

?

Thanks in advance.

soichi

P.S. If there is a good book or site that describes the information I'm looking for, please let me know.

Re: Character and font sets for Japanese

[Jason Rumney]

On Aug 23, 10:35 am, soichi <soichi...@gmail.com> wrote:

> "When table alignment fails, it usually has to do with character sets where some characters have non-integer width. Org will deal correctly with characters that are one or two or three ASCII characters wide, but not with characters that are, for example, 1.5 ASCII characters wide. To make table alignment work you need to switch to a different character set."

I think the original author meant "font", not "character set". So try
a different Japanese font here:

> (set-fontset-font (frame-parameter nil 'font)
>                   'japanese-jisx0208
>                   '("VL Gothic" . "unicode-bmp"))

Re: Character and font sets for Japanese

[Ivan Kanis]

soichi <soichi777@gmail.com> wrote:

> Right now I am trying to use org-mode but have encountered a problem
> in putting entries in Japanese.  When typing in spreadsheet in this
> language, the cells are deformed and do not align properly.

Funny you should ask this I set up fixed Japanese font on my system last
night... Here's the relevant code (works on Linux):

Here's the relevant code:

(set-frame-font 
"-unknown-DejaVu Sans Mono-normal-normal-*-20-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1")

(if (eq window-system 'x)
    (set-fontset-font
 "fontset-default" 'japanese-jisx0208
 "-jis-fixed-medium-r-normal--24-230-75-75-c-240-jisx0208.1983-0"))
-- 
Ivan Kanis
http://kanis.fr

A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student
and whose goal is not dictate the answers, but to stimulate his
students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers
themselves.
    -- Herbie Hancock