Re: How do I search for symbols such as \253 in Emacs

[Peter]

I wrote this many years ago when I first picked up Emacs. As I come across new 
characters I just add to the list with the expected replacement string. I tried 
to keep track of what the character looked like in the comment beside it. The 
replacement strings are for text files which I am converting to LaTeX files 
(which is typically where I run across this problem), so you might want to 
change some of the replacements to better suit your application.

Hope this helps,
Peter

(defun fix-latin-1-chars ()
  (interactive)
  (let ((change-list '((?\x005397c  "``")  ; “
                       (?\xc "")           ; Page Feed character
                      (?\x005397d  "''")   ; ”
                      (?\x2019  "'")    ; ’
                      (?\x201c  "''")   ; ”
                      (?\x201d  "''")   ; ”
                      (?\x2014  "--")   ; —
                      (?\x2026  " \\ldots ")   ; —
                      (?\x0053974  "--")   ; —
                      (?\x0053979  "'")    ; ’
                      (?\x81     "'")
                      (?\x2018     "'")
                      (?\x2019     "'")
                      (?\x201A     ".")
                      (?\x2022     ".")
                      (?\x8b4      "'")    ; ´
                      (?\x53979    "'")
                      (?\x00539a6  " ")    ; …
                      (?\x0053978  "`")    ; ‘
                      (?\x0053973  "--")   ; –
                      (?\x2013  "--")   ; –
                      (?\x8b7  "*")        ; ·
                      (?\x004e647  "*")    ; 
                      (?\x004e6a0  "*")    ; 
                      (?\x8bd  ".5")       ; ½
                      (?\x8a1  " ")        ; ¡
                      (?\x8a7  " ")        ; §
                      (?\x8a8  " ")        ; ¨
                      (?\x0053973  "-")    ; –
                      (?\x0053c39  "*")    ; ∙
                      (?\x26  "and")       ; &
                      (?\x004e657  "*")    ; 
                      (?\x004e5f1  "*")    ; 
                      (?\x004e648  "*")    ; 
                      (?\x004f070  "*")    ; 
                      (?\x004e5ca  "*")    ; 
                      (?\x004e5f6  "*")    ; 
                      (?\x004e678  "*")    ; 
                      (?\xf0a8 "*")        ; 
                      (?\xf0b7 "*")        ; 
                      (?\xf0fc "*")        ; 
                      (?\x0053972  "*")    ; ‒
                      (?\x8d8  "*")        ; Ø
                      (?\x004e5aa  "*")    ; 
                      (?\x8b6 " ")         ; ¶
                      (?\x4f95f "")        ; 
                      (?\x539a0 "")        ; †
                      (?\x5397e "")
                      (?\xfeff "")
                      (?\x00539a2  "*")))  ; •
        (search-for)
        (start-point (point))
        (buffer-limit (point-max)))
    (dolist (item change-list)
      (setq search-for (make-string 1 (car item)))
      (goto-char start-point)
      (while (re-search-forward search-for buffer-limit t)
        (delete-char -1)
        (insert (car (cdr item)))))))