From: Intransition <transfire@...>
Date: 2010-09-01T03:17:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Ok, so no $KCODE --a chance to learn a little about Encodings

On Aug 31, 12:47 pm, Intransition <transf...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am working on some 1.8  to 1.9 compatibility. I have a bit of code:
>
>     if $KCODE =~ /^U/i
>       unpack_rule = 'U*'
>     else
>       unpack_rule = 'C*'
>     end
>
> $KCODE is no long effective, so what to do for 1.9?

I think I have figured it out. Given two strings to compare we can do:

    if str2.encoding != str1.encoding
      str2 = str2.encode(str1.encoding.name)
    end

    s = str1.codepoints.to_a
    t = str2.codepoints.to_a

Where #codepoints does the same as old str.unpack(unpack_rule).

This page was very helpful:

  http://blog.grayproductions.net/articles/ruby_19s_string