Fri, 15 Aug 2008
< PyBlosxom WSGI? | MAIN | Fun with Emacs: eval-after-load* >
Fun With Emacs: Unicode and #'describe-char
Ever use the emacs command describe-char? It's even more fun with proper unicode lookup data!
;; First, we'll bind it to a key.
(global-set-key "\C-cD" #'describe-char)
;; Now we'll download it if necessary.
(let ((udf-url "http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/UnicodeData.txt")
(udf-dest "~/tmp/UnicodeData.txt"))
(if (file-readable-p udf-dest)
;; Let describe-char know it exists.
(setq describe-char-unicodedata-file udf-dest)
;; It doesn't exist, and we need to download it!
(when (y-or-n-p (format "You need to download %s ! Do it? " udf-url))
;; Really weird: wget -O 'file' complains that file doesn't exist.
(let* ((cmd (format "cd ~/tmp/ && wget -O %s --progress=dot '%s'"
udf-dest udf-url))
(buf (get-buffer-create (format " *wget '%s'*" udf-url)))
(proc (start-process-shell-command "wget-unicode-Data"
buf cmd)))
(display-buffer buf)
(set-process-sentinel
proc
`(lambda (proc event)
(unless (string-match "^finished" event)
(error "unexpected status '%s' getting '%s'" ,udf-url event))
(setq describe-char-unicodedata-file ,udf-dest)
(message "Try describe-char now! ☣☥☸▧◉✘✽☮⅙▧⚅☑☢☹☺♠♥♦♣♨♻⚔")))
(message "Downloading... check describe-char later")
nil))))
Once this is run and it tells you to try describe-char you can position your cursor over one of the Unicode characters in the message (“C-h e” to display the “*Messages*” buffer) and press “C-cD” and look for the “Name:” line. You'll see something like this:
character: ♻ (299515, #o1110773, #x491fb, U+267B)
charset: mule-unicode-2500-33ff (Unicode characters of the range U+2500..U+33FF.)
code point: #x23 #x7B
syntax: w which means: word
buffer code: #x9C #xF2 #xA3 #xFB
file code: #xE2 #x99 #xBB (encoded by coding system mule-utf-8)
display: terminal code #xE2 #x99 #xBB
Unicode data:
Name: BLACK UNIVERSAL RECYCLING SYMBOL
Category: other symbol
Combining class: Spacing
Bidi category: Other Neutrals