# Iconv emacs trouble

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/iconv-emacs-trouble/172134>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 15, 2009, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/iconv-emacs-trouble/172134 "2009-07-15T12:03:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Francesco\_Malvezzi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Francesco\_Malvezzi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Francesco_Malvezzi)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/iconv-emacs-trouble/172134/1 "2009-07-15T12:03:47Z")

</div>

I’m finding a weird problem with iconv. I would like to convert from  
UTF-8 West European strings (like ‘pan carrè’) to the ASCII//TRANSLIT -\>  
‘pan carre’

my system is: Linux bacedifo 2.6.18-6-xen-686 #1 SMP Fri Dec 12 20:13:49  
UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux  
with  
ruby 1.8.7 (2008-08-11 patchlevel 72) [i486-linux]

my script is:  
"  
require ‘iconv’  
$KCODE = ‘UTF-8’  
require ‘jcode’

resume =  
'résumé’puts resume.inspect

puts “Internal iconv: #{Iconv.conv(“ASCII//TRANSLIT”, “UTF8”, resume)}”  
puts “System iconv: #{%x{echo “#{resume}” | iconv -f utf-8 -t  
ascii//translit}.strip}”  
"

Output is:  
francesco@bacedifo:~/tmp$ ruby ruby-talk.rb  
"résumé"Internal iconv: r?sum? # wrong: should be: resume  
System iconv: resume # correct

Some more weirdness: with irb it just works:  
francesco@bacedifo:~/tmp$ irb -r iconv  
irb(main):001:0\> resume =  
‘résumé’=\> “r\303\251sum\303\251”  
irb(main):002:0\> Iconv.conv(“ASCII//TRANSLIT”, “UTF8”, resume)  
=\> “resume”

With jruby fails in a different way:  
francesco@bacedifo:~/tmp$ jruby ruby-talk.rb  
"résumé"Internal iconv: résumé # wrong  
System iconv: rA©sumA© # wrong

Is it a emacs issue? Maybe, but vim does the same. It’s more likely I’m  
doing something wrong. Can you help me?

Thank you!

Francesco

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Francesco\_Malvezzi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Francesco\_Malvezzi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Francesco_Malvezzi)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/iconv-emacs-trouble/172134/2 "2009-07-16T05:37:52Z")

</div>

I know how do you feel, your problem really sucks.

To create tests that complain with this kind of issue into emacs, when  
my  
problem was with ISO-8859 strings, I wrote code inserting multi-byte  
chars  
by octal insertion (Use quoted-insert - C-q followed by octal  
character  
code -  
[http://www.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/info2www?(emacs)Inserting%20Text](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/info2www?(emacs)Inserting%20Text))…

Example: to insert the ISO 8859-1 string:

> > física é linda

(that extends to “Physics is beautiful” into portuguese), I should use

> > _f\205sica \201 linda_

where \*\*\* is in truth the multi-byte char.  
With this approach I could test iconv from emacs edited file.

DOES NOT INSERT \*\*\*, this is just the representation that emacs  
display at  
char position when you insert it from C-q combination.

I expect that this is useful to you, cause when I pass through the same  
problem, I lose a lot of time searching for this solution.

On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 7:01 AM, Francesco Malvezzi \<  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid\> wrote:

> "  
> "  
> =\> “r\303\251sum\303\251”  
> doing something wrong. Can you help me?
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> Francesco

–  
Everton J. Carpes  
Mobile: +55 53 9129.4593  
MSN: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
UIN: 343716195  
Jabber: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
Twitter: [http://twitter.com/everton\_carpes](http://twitter.com/everton_carpes)  
Blog: [http://www.geek.com.br/blogs/832697633-My-Way](http://www.geek.com.br/blogs/832697633-My-Way)  
Feeds: [https://www.google.com/reader/shared/05200358440305782625](https://www.google.com/reader/shared/05200358440305782625)

“If art interprets our dreams, the computer executes them in the guise  
of  
programs!” - Alan J. Perlis