From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2009-04-22T07:13:39+09:00
Subject: Re: special characters screwing up string operations

On Apr 21, 2009, at 12:41, Aryk Grosz wrote:

> Im doing some manipulation of strings, and there are some characters
> that Ruby just really does not like:
>
> “ –
>
> If you try to paste these into a Ruby console the cursor will jump
> around. Likewise, if you put it in a string and try to do text[5,4] it
> will give you the wrong piece of the text.
>
> How do I get around this. Is there some special escape command or do I
> just have to gsub these characters?

My console doesn't allow me to paste these characters into irb (OS X,  
it beeps when I try) so I think it is Readline's fault.

I can read them with gets:

$ ruby -e 'p gets'
“ –
"\342\200\234 \342\200\223\n"

You'll probably need to adjust your terminal settings to accept these  
characters.