From: ghorner <gabriel.horner@...>
Date: 2009-07-01T03:25:11+09:00
Subject: Should a gem set $KCODE in ruby 1.8 for others?

Hi,
 I recently got a request to make my gem utf-8 friendly:
http://github.com/cldwalker/hirb/issues#issue/3
since my gem involves calculating string lengths. For ruby 1.8 I need
to use jcode's jlength() to calculate this correctly but I'll need to
set $KCODE in order to use it. Is it considered intrusive to set
$KCODE in a gem for others considering its global effect? If so, then
I'll probably just copy jcode's jlength() into my code.

Thanks,
Gabriel