Re: Using utf-8 and only utf-8

[dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs)]

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In article <mailman.17642.1219801733.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
Maurí­cio  <briqueabraque@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Nikolaj Schumacher a écrit :
>> Maurí­cio <briqueabraque@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Is it possible to set something
>>> in .emacs so that emacs will
>>> always, no matter what, save any
>>> file in utf-8 (even those that
>>> were not utf-8 when they were
>>> open)?
>> 
>> Yes, edit `file-coding-system-alist'.  But I'd leave some of the
>> exceptions (e.g. ".elc") in there.
>> 
>> 
>> regards,
>> Nikolaj Schumacher
>> 
>> 
>> 
>
>I just added this to my .emacs:
>
>(prefer-coding-system 'utf-8)
>(modify-coding-system-alist 'file ".*" 'utf-8)
>
>Is it the proper way of doing that? (Sorry,
>beginner question…)

I get this same question, "what coding system?", sometimes, like
sometimes when grabbing some text from a wikipedia entry.

Not knowing anything about these coding systems, their history,
etc, I haven't a clue as to what to answer!

For someone like me often grabbing ascii[-like?] files from eg
wikipedia, would a choice of utf-8 be reasonable? 

Again, it's for what seems and looks to me (on screen) like 
plain old ascii.

And what would you have me stick into my .emacs, then?


THANK YOU!

David