From: "Peña, Botp" <botp@...>
Date: 2008-08-15T09:44:34+09:00
Subject: Re: Inconsistent regexp behavior

From: Glen Holcomb [mailto:damnbigman@gmail.com] 
# puts "toads suck".gsub(/(\s)/, "\\#{$1}")
# toads\suck
# Can anyone explain why this is happening.  I'm convinced it 
# shouldn't ever happen.

it's a common surprise, but ruby has a solution for that; try the block form

irb(main):002:0> puts "toads suck".gsub(/(\s)/) { "\\#{$1}" }
toads\ suck
=> nil

no surprise.

kind regards -botp