From: Mark Hubbart <discordantus@...>
Date: 2005-04-28T08:39:25+09:00
Subject: Re: $KCODE reference documentation

On 4/27/05, Bertram Scharpf <lists@bertram-scharpf.de> wrote:> Am Sonntag, 24. Apr 2005, 21:04:31 +0900 schrieb dm1:> > Hello, i know that one can use $KCODE to set the charset encoding, but do> > not find anymore where this is documented. Any pointers for that ?> > As far as I see when the source code is read the `-K' option> and the inline pragma (`# -*- ...') apply. After that,> `$KCODE' only influences what Regexp's dot (`/./') does.> > But that's just a guess.
It also affects legal names:
--#!/usr/bin/env ruby -Ku
π = Math::PI∆ = -(Time.now - Time.now)℞ = "300mg Xanax"def √(n) Math.sqrt(n) enddef ∛(n) n**(1/3.0) end
puts "π = #{π}"  # Piputs "∆ = #{∆}"  # Deltaputs "℞ = #{℞}"  # Perscription symbolputs "√ 144 = #{√ 144}"  # Square root symbolputs "∛ 27 = #{∛ 27}"  # Cube root symbol--
The preceding script only runs properly with the kcode set to utf-8,due to the unusual variable and method names (some of which may beunreadable on some systems).
It seems there might be other effects, to; but basically setting thekcode should make ruby "really like" the character encoding.
cheers,Mark