From: bjsp123@... (Benjamin Peterson)
Date: 2003-09-22T23:09:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Trouble with binary files?

Tim Hammerquist <tim@vegeta.ath.cx> wrote in message news:<slrnbmn365.dmt.tim@vegeta.ath.cx>...
> However, (for backward compatibility?) when the ^Z *is*
> encountered in a textmode file, 

....or, better yet, when any text character whose encoding happens to
include an 0x1a is encountered!  My, that *was* annoying.

> As someone else mentioned above, this isn't an issue on Unix or
> many other systems, 

Or indeed on Windows, provided you avoid ruby :I

> The moral of the story is:
> 
>     Always call fh.binmode() before reading
>     any non-text file on non-Unix platforms.

You have to call it before reading *any* file, unless you just know
that only ASCII was used, for the reason above.  I think ruby is the
only software I've ever used that has this issue.  I suppose ruby must
check for the 0x1a *before* allowing for the encoding system.