From: Michael Selig <michael.selig@...>
Date: 2008-12-21T10:03:14+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:20740] Re: Working with binary strings in Ruby 1.9?

On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:43:32 +1100, James Gray <james@grayproductions.net>  
wrote:

> On Dec 20, 2008, at 12:49 PM, Hadmut Danisch wrote:
>
>> The code I am working on is parsing files with binary content (such as
>> pictures, machine code, etc.). With 1.8, I could easily use
>>
>>    * File.open{|f| f.read} to read the contents,
>
> In 1.9 use:
>
>    File.binread(���)

Alternatively you can specify 'encoding: "BINARY"' eg:

	File.open(<file>, encoding: "BINARY") {|f| f.read}
or shorter
	File.read(<file>, encoding: "BINARY")

This will return the enire contents of the file in a "BINARY" (ASCII-8BIT)  
string which can be accessed as in 1.8. and should be as efficient.
The only difference (as already mentioned) is that a single index (eg:  
data[10]) now returns a single byte string, not a number.

Cheers
Mike