From: Matthew Kerwin <matthew@...>
Date: 2012-09-14T08:42:43+09:00
Subject: Re: \b not working?

On 14 September 2012 09:24, Cookie Rubster <lists@ruby-forum.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> New to Ruby and can't seem to get the \b escape to work. Code:
>
> j=0
> while j<10
>   print rand(1...10)
>   sleep (0.1)
>   print "\b"
>   j+=1
> end
>
> Output:
>
> 4523175329
> - just a series of 10 random numbers on the same line.
>
> Am I missing something, or shouldn't it backspace, and print all the #s
> in the first character space?
>
> Your help appreciated!
> Jeff

In short: it depends where you're printing it.

The raw bytes streaming from your program's $stdout stream include a
bunch of digits (value 0x30 to 0x39) and the odd "\b" (0x08).  It's up
to the terminal/console/etc. that receives them and formats them for
display to interpret the 0x08-bytes the way you intended.

Where are you running said script? (Which operating system, terminal
emulator, etc.?)