Re: How to determine encoding for file?

[Kevin Rodgers <kevin.d.rodgers@gmail.com>]

kj wrote:
> I've downloaded a large file that is supposed to contain a mixture
> of Japanese and English (it's basically a learner's dictionary).
> The English is displayed correctly, but not so for the Japanese.
> 
> I've tried setting the buffer's coding system to utf-8,
> japanese-shift-jis, japanese-shift-jis-mac, japanese-shift-jis-dos
> (just guessing).  None worked.
> 
> In fact, I'm not even sure that any of these changes of the coding
> system achieved *anything*, since the buffer's appearance remained
> unchanged throughout all this mucking around.  I used the command
> set-buffer-file-coding-system to do this.  Should I need to do
> anything besides re-setting the coding system to see a change in
> how the file is displayed?

Use `C-x RET r' (aka M-x revert-buffer-with-coding-system).

> More importantly, is there a better way to determine a file's
> correct coding system besides trial and error?

-- 
Kevin Rodgers
Denver, Colorado, USA