Thursday, August 15, 2024

How does 'Convert to ANSI' and ANSI Encoding function work in Notepad++

What is the difference between function 'Convert to ANSI' and selecting ANSI character set for a file? 






















Let's start with an example; ᒋ Inuktitut symbol for 'gi'. The hexacimal representation of ᒋ is e1 92 8b opened in FRHED a free hex editor.













The 'Convert to ANSI' actually reduces the character set to fit within the ANSI range of 0-256 characters. ANSI encompasses on the upper end the Latin-1 Supplement plane to handle some established European languages. 

So, characters greater than decimal 256 or 0x3f in hexadecimal are converted to a question mark (?).

When you 'Convet to ANSI' on gi, it became a question mark 0x3f in hex. In Notepad++ you see a question mark as well. 





Select Encoding -> ANSI, does not change the values, just how they are displayed in Notepad++. 



















Sunday, August 11, 2024

How to open a URL with emacs from the Windows command line

Here's how start emacs with a URL from the Windows command line so you can surf a website, using emacs built-in and very fast and stable text browser.

cd C:\Program Files\Emacs\emacs-28.2\bin
emacs --eval "(eww \"https://google.com\")"

Result





























This will open emacs, but the command window will still wait until the emacs client in closed. 

To get around this and this long command line, use my Clipboard Plaintext PowerTool 




Copy URL and launch Emacs text browser in 1-click! :) 

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

What is the difference between Convert to ANSI function versus ANSI Encoding in Notepad++

What is the difference between function 'Convert to ANSI' and selecting ANSI character set for a file? 






















Let's start with an example; ᒋ Inuktitut symbol for 'gi'. The hexacimal representation of ᒋ is e1 92 8b opened in FRHED a free hex editor.













Convert to ANSI Function


The 'Convert to ANSI' actually reduces the character set to fit within the ANSI range of 0-256 characters. ANSI encompasses on the upper end the Latin-1 Supplement plane to handle some established European languages. 

So, characters greater than decimal 256 or 0x3f in hexadecimal are converted to a question mark (?).

When you 'Convet to ANSI' on gi, it became a question mark 0x3f in hex. In Notepad++ you see a question mark as well. 





Selecting ANSI Encoding


Select Encoding -> ANSI, does not change the values, just how they are displayed in Notepad++. 
















That's the difference!