From: Michael Brooks <michael.brooks@...>
Date: 2011-01-17T02:10:22+09:00
Subject: Re: [Ruby 1.9] New String rules?


"felix.leg" <felix.leg@vp.pl> wrote in message 
news:igv4bb$a49$1@news.onet.pl...
>I have just updated my Ruby into 1.9.0, and tried to run one of my 
>programs. But I got that response:
> > zrzutnik.rb:19: invalid multibyte char (US-ASCII)
> > zrzutnik.rb:19: invalid multibyte char (US-ASCII)
> > zrzutnik.rb:19: syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting keyword_end
> > print "Klucz #{kl.inspect} jest nieznany. Zdefiniować
> > nowy [T/N]? "
> >                                                       ^
> (at Ruby 1.8 it works fine)
>
> Does it mean I can't use any longer any non-latin character in my 
> String-s? WTF?
>
> PS: The file ("zrzutnik.rb") is encoded all in utf-8 (without BOM).

Hello:

In Ruby 1.9.x you need to explicitly specify the encoding of your strings to 
fit your requirements.  Your default string encoding appears to be US-ASCII 
(mine is CP850).  If you want it to be UTF-8 use the following to force the 
string to that encoding:

  abc = "abc"
  puts abc.encoding.name  # >> US-ASCII

  abc.force_encoding("UTF-8")
  puts abc.encoding.name  # >> UTF-8

James Edward Gray II wrote an excellent blog on the topic here 
http://blog.grayproductions.net/articles/ruby_19s_string .

Michael