pasting utf-8 into zenicb buffers.

zenicb-idna.el

;;; very lightly tested.

;;; changes unicode text pasted into an icb buffer like
;;; The first novel to win the ‘Triple Crown’ of science fiction literature awards
;;; into
;;; <fn[13:12]> The first novel to win the xn--triple-vh0c xn--crown-3v3b of science fiction literature awards
;;; instead of
;;; <fn[13:12]> The first novel to win the ?Triple Crown? of science fiction literature awards

;; install the idn package, which gives you idna.el

(require 'idna)

;; M-x customize-variable RET idna-to-ascii-parameters RET
;; and remove the --usetd3asciirules entry

;; make sure your zenicb buffer has (set-buffer-multibyte t)
;; i don't know if setting it to multibyte breaks anything.

(defun zenicb-send-public (message proc)
  (let ((s message)
           (start 0))
        (loop while (string-match "\\([^\s]+\\)\\(\\s-*\\)" s start)
              do (setf start (match-end 0))
              collect (idna-to-ascii (match-string 1 s)) into retstring
              if (> (length (match-string 2 s)) 0)
              collect (match-string 2 s) into retstring
              finally (zenicb-send-string proc ?b (apply #'concat retstring)))))

;; the reverse process is something like this:

(let ((s "The first novel to win the xn--triple-vh0c xn--crown-3v3b of science fiction literature awards")
      (start 0))
  (loop while (string-match "\\([^\s]+\\)\\(\\s-*\\)" s start)
              do (setf start (match-end 0))
              collect (idna-to-unicode (match-string 1 s)) into retstring
              if (> (length (match-string 2 s)) 0)
              collect (match-string 2 s) into retstring
              finally return (apply #'concat retstring)))