From: "Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner" <ed.odanow@...>
Date: 2007-11-10T17:44:37+09:00
Subject: IO.read, IO#read (and similar methods) - Length Parameter Usage for Non One-Byte Encodings

Good morning dear Ruby folks!

I have a question regarding the behavior of IO.read, IO#read, and similar 
methods in regard of the "length" parameter, if the encoding is not Ascii, which 
means, that characters can occupy more than one Byte.

Will the parameter be interpreted as "characters" given by 
Encoding.primary_encoding or an additional parameter, or as number of bytes 
(similar question exists in respect to "offset" in "IO.read")?

If it will be the number of bytes, what can be done to ensure that the data will 
be consistent?

Wolfgang N��dasi-Donner