From: Gaspard Bucher Date: 2007-09-12T21:26:24+09:00 Subject: Re: what is this syntax: \001\002 ? A byte is coded on 8 bits, so the maximum is 255 hence the strange results below : irb> 8 * 8 * 7 + 8 * 7 + 7 => 511 irb> "\777".inspect => "\377" irb> "\777"[0] => 255 irb> "\377"[0] => 255 \777 is invalid and is truncated to \377.