From: vnpenguin@...
Date: 2005-12-25T19:02:52+09:00
Subject: convert perl code to ruby: help please

Hi all,
I have a following Perl code:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
%charmap =(
  "a`" => "\xc3\xa0",
  "a?" => "\xe1\xba\xa3",
  "a~" => "\xc3\xa3",
  "a'" => "\xc3\xa1",
  "a." => "\xe1\xba\xa1",
  "a(" => "\xc4\x83",
  "a(`" => "\xe1\xba\xb1",
  "a(?" => "\xe1\xba\xb3",
  "a(~" => "\xe1\xba\xb5",
  "a('" => "\xe1\xba\xaf",
  "a(." => "\xe1\xba\xb7",
  "a^" => "\xc3\xa2",
  "a^`" => "\xe1\xba\xa7",
  "a^?" => "\xe1\xba\xa9",
  "a^~" => "\xe1\xba\xab",
  "a^'" => "\xe1\xba\xa5",
  "a^." => "\xe1\xba\xad"
)

$str =~ s{ ( [aA] (?: [(^]? ['`?~.] | [(^] ) )}{$charmap{$1}}egox;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just for converting from VIQR (a 7bit charset for Vietnamese) into
UTF-8.

I'm trying to do the same method in Ruby:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
charmap = {
  "a`" => "\xc3\xa0",
  "a?" => "\xe1\xba\xa3",
  "a~" => "\xc3\xa3",
  "a'" => "\xc3\xa1",
  "a." => "\xe1\xba\xa1",
  "a(" => "\xc4\x83",
  "a(`" => "\xe1\xba\xb1",
  "a(?" => "\xe1\xba\xb3",
  "a(~" => "\xe1\xba\xb5",
  "a('" => "\xe1\xba\xaf",
  "a(." => "\xe1\xba\xb7",
  "a^" => "\xc3\xa2",
  "a^`" => "\xe1\xba\xa7",
  "a^?" => "\xe1\xba\xa9",
  "a^~" => "\xe1\xba\xab",
  "a^'" => "\xe1\xba\xa5",
  "a^." => "\xe1\xba\xad"}

def vconv (str)
	str.gsub(/([aA] (?:[(^]?['`?~.]|[(^]) )/){ |k| charmap[k] }
end
$stdin.each {|line| puts vconv(line)}
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No error but I can't get UTF-8 string :(
I'm completly Nuby in Rubyland, so any help will be very apreciated.
TIA,