Re: utf8x and org-mode 8

[Sebastien Vauban <sva-news-D0wtAvR13HarG/iDocfnWg@public.gmane.org>]

Daniel Szmulewicz wrote:
> I understand that org-latex derives the encoding from the buffer. 
> In the ".tex” file produced by the exporter, I see this line:
> \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
>
> However, I would like to set it to:
> \usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
>
> I need to account for special French spacing characters: “espaces insécables." 
>
> Old tricks to achieve this with previous org-mode versions don’t seem to work. 
> What is the best way to export an org buffer and have it set to utf8x with the latest org-mode version?

AFAICT, when using the `utf8' option to `inputenc' (and not `utf8x'
which should be avoided, as it uses `ucs' which is no longer
maintained), we have 2 solutions to support the UTF-8 non-breaking
space:

- Convert it in Org mode, when exporting (via a filter)

  #+begin_src emacs-lisp
    ;; filter for non-breaking spaces
    (defun leuven--latex-filter-nbsp (text backend info)
      "Convert non-breaking spaces when exporting to LaTeX/Beamer."
      (when (memq backend '(latex beamer))
        (replace-regexp-in-string " " "~" text)))

    (add-to-list 'org-export-filter-plain-text-functions
                 'leuven--latex-filter-nbsp)
  #+end_src

- or Convert it in LaTeX:

  #+begin_src emacs-lisp :tangle no
    ;; convert `nbsp' to its LaTeX equivalent
    (add-to-list 'org-latex-packages-alist
                 (concat "\\ifdefined\\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{"
                         "\\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{00A0}{~}"
                         "}\\fi") t)
  #+end_src

I think that the first one is "better", though its problem is that,
being done by a filter (hence, on the user-side), sharing an Org file is
not easy anymore (without sharing the filter to be added to the
personal .emacs file).

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sebastien Vauban