From: Roger Pack <rogerdpack2@...>
Date: 2010-08-31T08:28:08+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:31962] Re: not use system for default encoding

> Well, firstly, that�s a pretty odd encoding to use. In general, you�ll have a
> far easier time if you use UTF-8 for everything, and legacy encodings only when
> necessary or, possibly, writing in a CJK script. In any case, even if you
> continue using that encoding, the external encoding only needs to be specified
> explicitly if the files contain non-ASCII characters. And if they do, and
> interoperability is your goal, then why are you using IBM437 in the first
> place?

So are you saying that regardless of what Encoding.default_external is
set to, if I read a file that only has ascii characters, it will
always show up as the same string, regardless?
Thanks!
-r