Autorecognition of "coding systems"

Sorry for the duplication if you are on both lists. The mule-coding, file-coding, and planned general coding features all will be most convenient if they auto-recognize the coding systems. Even with native languages, autorecognition can be done with a high degree of accuracy in most environments. However, there remains some probability of error, and errors in coding recognition will definitely produce substantial probability of data corruption. Ben has proposed arranging that all coding transformations be invertible (except near user changes to the buffer). This could involve storing large portions of the original file. It also (in principle) need not let the user know about the potential data loss. An alternative lighter-weight possibility would be to simply to mark any positions where potentially non-invertible transformations were made, and set the buffer read-only. (Of course, the latter action would be configurable by the user.) A command would be provided so that the user could traverse the positions where potential problems were identified, and check for data corruption. I think we would probably want something like this even if we did provide for full invertibility. Comments? -- University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences Tel/fax: +81 (298) 53-5091 _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ What are those straight lines for? "XEmacs rules."