RE: x-symbol package dangerous in multibyte environment

["Wedler, Christoph" <christoph.wedler@sap.com>]

 >  x-symbol-default-coding 'iso-8859-1

You should use
   (setq x-symbol-default-coding 'iso-8859-2)

X-Symbol tries to set it automatically by using the shell command
locale.  The next version (v4.4.4) will also inspect the variables
`current-language-environment'/`language-info-alist' if present.

X-Symbol issues a warning if it cannot deduce the value automatically,
in the installation section:

     If you get a warning about X-Symbol not being
   able to deduce a default encoding (or about limited support with XEmacs
   on MS-Windows), check *Note Default Coding::.

but the warning is somehow hidden when using Emacs.  The "Bug Report"
section will also include in v4.4.4:

   @c TODO: without warnings.el from Emacs-21.4
   Temporary Emacs (< v21.4) note: the warnings might be somewhere hidden
   in buffer @file{*Messages*}.

 >> > You should check the value of `enable-multibyte-characters' and in
 >> > multibyte buffers encoding/decoding should be switched off
 >> > completely.
 >> 
 >> X-Symbol makes the buffer multibyte before decoding.

 > Well, so perhaps `x-symbol-coding' should somehow inherit the value of
 > the `coding' local pseudo-variable.

I see (this pseudo var `coding' is not in XEmacs-21.4).  And it sets
`buffer-file-coding-system' (which is also in XEmacs).

Funny enough, last week I started to think about that var.  What I
should do is: no recoding if `buffer-file-coding-system' does not
correspond to `x-symbol-default-coding'.  This will be in v4.4.4 (next
week?)
 > On the other hand, my recent experience with x-symbol supports my
 > suggestions that Emacs should refuse to save a file using a different
 > coding than the one specified in the local variables block.

either that or `buffer-file-coding-system' must correspond to
`x-symbol-default-coding' (see above).

If you use the `setq' mentioned at the beginning, your problem should
disappear.

- Christoph