From: John Sampson <jrs.idx@...>
Date: 2013-01-16T21:58:13+09:00
Subject: Escaped backslashes in input strings - newbie question

I am trying to find a way of removing escaped characters in input 
strings from a file made by another program. That is to say, 
two-character sequences in which the first character is a backslash.

I would have thought in my naivete that gsub(/\\./,"") would do this, 
but no. I am using Ruby 1.9 hence Oniguruma.

Firstly, are the strings input from a text file treated as single- or 
double-quoted?

Secondly, are there alternatives to gsub?

Thirdly, are there any *clear* and *exhaustive* treatments of the 
question of escaped backslashes in Ruby - in input strings in programs, 
in IRB, with single-quoted strings, double-quoted strings and other 
situations? I guess a multidimensional table might be useful to 
determine how to escape a backslash, if it can be done at all.

Regards

John Sampson