* Not Intervals:: Why text properties do not use
Lisp-visible text intervals.
+Non-ASCII Characters
+
+* Text Representations:: Unibyte and multibyte representations
+* Converting Representations:: Converting unibyte to multibyte and vice versa.
+* Selecting a Representation:: Treating a byte sequence as unibyte or multi.
+* Character Codes:: How unibyte and multibyte relate to
+ codes of individual characters.
+* Character Sets:: The space of possible characters codes
+ is divided into various character sets.
+* Chars and Bytes:: More information about multibyte encodings.
+* Splitting Characters:: Converting a character to its byte sequence.
+* Scanning Charsets:: Which character sets are used in a buffer?
+* Translation of Characters:: Translation tables are used for conversion.
+* Coding Systems:: Coding systems are conversions for saving files.
+* Input Methods:: Input methods allow users to enter various
+ non-ASCII characters without speciak keyboards.
+* Locales:: Interacting with the POSIX locale.
+
Searching and Matching
* String Search:: Search for an exact match.
can operate on file names that do not refer to an existing file or
directory.
- On VMS, all these functions understand both VMS file-name syntax and
-Unix syntax. This is so that all the standard Lisp libraries can
-specify file names in Unix syntax and work properly on VMS without
-change. On MS-DOS and MS-Windows, these functions understand MS-DOS or
-MS-Windows file-name syntax as well as Unix syntax.
+ On MS-DOS and MS-Windows, these functions (like the function that
+actually operate on files) accept MS-DOS or MS-Windows file-name syntax,
+where backslashes separate the components, as well as Unix syntax; but
+they always return Unix syntax. On VMS, these functions (and the ones
+that operate on files) understand both VMS file-name syntax and Unix
+syntax. This enables Lisp programs to specify file names in Unix syntax
+and work properly on all systems without change.
@menu
* File Name Components:: The directory part of a file name, and the rest.
Concatenating these two parts reproduces the original file name.
On most systems, the directory part is everything up to and including
-the last slash (or backslash, on MS-DOS or MS-Windows); the nondirectory
-part is the rest. The rules in VMS syntax are complicated.
+the last slash (backslash is also allowed in input on MS-DOS or
+MS-Windows); the nondirectory part is the rest. The rules in VMS syntax
+are complicated.
For some purposes, the nondirectory part is further subdivided into
the name proper and the @dfn{version number}. On most systems, only
@end example
@end defun
-@defvar directory-sep-char
-@tindex directory-sep-char
-This variable holds the character that the system normally uses to
-separate file name components. The value is @code{?/} on GNU and Unix
-systems, and @code{?\\} on MS-DOS and MS-Windows. Note that file names
-using slashes as separators work properly in Emacs on all of these
-systems; you are not obliged to use backslashes on Microsoft systems.
+@ignore
+Andrew Innes says that this
+
+@c @defvar directory-sep-char
+@c @tindex directory-sep-char
+This variable holds the character that Emacs normally uses to separate
+file name components. The default value is @code{?/}, but on MS-Windows
+you can set it to @code{?\\}; then the functions that transform file names
+use backslashes in their output.
+
+File names using backslashes work as input to Lisp primitives even on
+MS-DOS and MS-Windows, even if @code{directory-sep-char} has its default
+value of @code{?/}.
@end defvar
+@end ignore
@node Directory Names
@comment node-name, next, previous, up
kind of file, and it has a file name, which is related to the directory
name but not identical to it. (This is not quite the same as the usual
Unix terminology.) These two different names for the same entity are
-related by a syntactic transformation. On most systems, this is simple: a
-directory name ends in a slash, whereas the directory's name as a file
-lacks that slash. On VMS, the relationship is more complicated.
+related by a syntactic transformation. On most systems, this is simple:
+a directory name ends in a slash (or backslash), whereas the directory's
+name as a file lacks that slash. On VMS, the relationship is more
+complicated.
The difference between a directory name and its name as a file is
subtle but crucial. When an Emacs variable or function argument is
@defun directory-file-name dirname
This function returns a string representing @var{dirname} in a form that
the operating system will interpret as the name of a file. On most
-systems, this means removing the final slash from the string. On VMS,
-the function converts a string of the form @file{[X.Y]} to
-@file{[X]Y.DIR.1}.
+systems, this means removing the final slash (or backslash) from the
+string. On VMS, the function converts a string of the form @file{[X.Y]}
+to @file{[X]Y.DIR.1}.
@example
@group
information.
The argument @var{partial-filename} must be a file name containing no
-directory part and no slash. The current buffer's default directory is
-prepended to @var{directory}, if @var{directory} is not absolute.
+directory part and no slash (or backslash on some systems). The current
+buffer's default directory is prepended to @var{directory}, if
+@var{directory} is not absolute.
In the following example, suppose that @file{~rms/lewis} is the current
default directory, and has five files whose names begin with @samp{f}:
characters and how they are stored in strings and buffers.
@menu
-* Text Representations::
-* Converting Representations::
-* Selecting a Representation::
-* Character Codes::
-* Character Sets::
-* Chars and Bytes::
-* Splitting Characters::
-* Scanning Charsets::
-* Translation of Characters::
-* Coding Systems::
-* Input Methods::
-* Locales:: Interacting with the POSIX locale.
+* Text Representations:: Unibyte and multibyte representations
+* Converting Representations:: Converting unibyte to multibyte and vice versa.
+* Selecting a Representation:: Treating a byte sequence as unibyte or multi.
+* Character Codes:: How unibyte and multibyte relate to
+ codes of individual characters.
+* Character Sets:: The space of possible characters codes
+ is divided into various character sets.
+* Chars and Bytes:: More information about multibyte encodings.
+* Splitting Characters:: Converting a character to its byte sequence.
+* Scanning Charsets:: Which character sets are used in a buffer?
+* Translation of Characters:: Translation tables are used for conversion.
+* Coding Systems:: Coding systems are conversions for saving files.
+* Input Methods:: Input methods allow users to enter various
+ non-ASCII characters without speciak keyboards.
+* Locales:: Interacting with the POSIX locale.
@end menu
@node Text Representations
documented here.
@menu
-* Coding System Basics::
-* Encoding and I/O::
-* Lisp and Coding Systems::
-* User-Chosen Coding Systems::
-* Default Coding Systems::
-* Specifying Coding Systems::
-* Explicit Encoding::
-* Terminal I/O Encoding::
-* MS-DOS File Types::
+* Coding System Basics:: Basic concepts.
+* Encoding and I/O:: How file I/O functions handle coding systems.
+* Lisp and Coding Systems:: Functions to operate on coding system names.
+* User-Chosen Coding Systems:: Asking the user to choose a coding system.
+* Default Coding Systems:: Controlling the default choices.
+* Specifying Coding Systems:: Requesting a particular coding system
+ for a single file operation.
+* Explicit Encoding:: Encoding or decoding text without doing I/O.
+* Terminal I/O Encoding:: Use of encoding for terminal I/O.
+* MS-DOS File Types:: How DOS "text" and "binary" files
+ relate to coding systems.
@end menu
@node Coding System Basics
projects / emacs.git / commitdiff