[ruby-core:32021] Re: not use system for default encoding

>> my gem, and read it later, I *must* specify its encoding when I read
>> it. 澳o it will succeed locally and *fail* on another box, which to me
>> adds extra confusion.
>
> No. You can show this is not the case yourself by specifying a different
> default external encoding, then reading in a file. If the file is ASCII-only,
> it can be read under any ASCII-compatible external encoding without you having
> to specify a thing. Your file is valid, and identical, in any of these
> encodings, so the precise one chosen is immaterial.

True.  I was referring more to the case where I did have non-ASCII
characters.  Using file.read on said file will then work on my box but
not necessarily on yours, which I think is surprising.  It's basically
an extra "gotcha"... (though I'll admit I've never run into it myself,
I've seen people mention it before).  It's not very portable...

>> The other surprising thing to me is that it assigns IBM437 not only to
>> terminal input but also to file input. Nobody* edits files in
>> IBM437. 潛t feels inappropriate to use that for the encoding, or,
>> really, to have a default for file encoding.
>
> I know little of Windows matters, but surely if that痴 your system locale, it
> is indeed the default encoding for editing files. Certainly, your text editor
> has presumably been configured to use something more sensible, but if not
> wouldn稚 it fallback to IBM437?

Surprisingly, the console edit.exe command actually appears to edit in
IBM437.  Nothing else that I'm aware of.  It's a mistake to assume
that encoding for File I/O.  Requiring it to be more explicit would
help people realize this, at least for me :P
Thanks!
-r