While that may be an accurate statement, trying to decipher what it means is not easy

I didn't want to spend much time confirming something the OP appeared to already know, but thanks for elaborating.

Update: Although I think your elaboration is flawed.

a unicode escape sequence is an integer. An 'encoding' converts a unicode integer into a character. An encoding is just a list that looks like this:

Determine the character a value represents is unrelated to encoding/decoding.

Decoding from UTF-8: 

...
01        =>  01 START OF HEADING
...
30        =>  30 DIGIT ZERO
...
E2 99 A0  =>  2660 BLACK SPADE SUIT
...

[download]

Encoding is the reverse operation.

There is no difference between 2660 and black spade suit. Black spade suit is just a meaning assumed by 2660. Decoding is definitely not the process of going from 2660 to black spade suit as you claim.

In reply to Re^2: Search & replace of UTF-8 characters ? by ikegami
in thread Search & replace of UTF-8 characters ? by levien

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