# Accentuated function names **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 15, 2008, 10:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accentuated-function-names/155652 "2008-12-15T10:27:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djib)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 10:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accentuated-function-names/155652/1 "2008-12-15T10:27:55Z")
Hello, I’ve started a new project in Ruby. For once, my sourcecode is not in English, but in French, and I’d like to know if its possible to have accentuated letters for function names in the sourcecode. I have encoded my file in UTF-8 and it is parsed fine on Linux, but on Windows, I get warnings and errors: main.rb:16: Invalid char `\303’ in expression Also, the accents do not display properly in the error messages: main.rb:34: syntax error, unexpected tFID, expecting ‘\n’ or ‘;’ def appr├®cie?(voisin) (instead of “apprécie?(voisin)”) Is there a way to specify sourcefile encoding? I could drop the accents in the source, but they make the code much more readable! Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djib)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accentuated-function-names/155652/2 "2008-12-15T11:54:31Z")
2008/12/15 Jean-baptiste H¨¦tier [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > def appr©À(R)cie?(voisin) > (instead of “appr¨¦cie?(voisin)”) > > Is there a way to specify sourcefile encoding? I could drop the accents > in the source, but they make the code much more readable! IMHO it is generally a good idea to stick with 7 bit ASCII in source code. Also, I would never use my mother tongue for source code, partly because keywords are English anyway (even though Matz is Japanese) and partly because English is the lingua franca of IT. I know, this is not what you wanted to hear. 🙂 Kind regards robert ---
**Author:** ![djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djib)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accentuated-function-names/155652/3 "2008-12-15T12:03:40Z")
Robert K. wrote: > IMHO it is generally a good idea to stick with 7 bit ASCII in source > code. Also, I would never use my mother tongue for source code, > partly because keywords are English anyway (even though Matz is > Japanese) and partly because English is the lingua franca of IT. I > know, this is not what you wanted to hear. 🙂 Thanks for your answer! Yeah, I’ll probably switch back to English… but I’m still interested in a solution. In Python you can define the file encoding in some kind of file header: #!/usr/bin/python # -_- coding: -_- I’m sure there’s a way to do that in Ruby as well, but couldn’t find it anywhere ☹ ---
**Author:** ![djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djib)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 12:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accentuated-function-names/155652/4 "2008-12-15T12:15:57Z")
Jean-baptiste Hétier wrote: > I’m sure there’s a way to do that in Ruby as well, but couldn’t find it > anywhere ☹ Mmmh, I just found the following link: [http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/35569](http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/35569) It probably hasn’t been implemented yet… Oh well… ---
**Author:** ![djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djib)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 12:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accentuated-function-names/155652/5 "2008-12-15T12:21:28Z")
Le 15 décembre 2008 à 12:08, Jean-baptiste Hétier a écrit : > Jean-baptiste Hétier wrote: > > > I’m sure there’s a way to do that in Ruby as well, but couldn’t find it > > anywhere ☹ > > Mmmh, I just found the following link: > [http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/35569](http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/35569) > > It probably hasn’t been implemented yet… Oh well… It has. In Ruby 1.9. Fred ---
**Author:** ![djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djib)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 2:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accentuated-function-names/155652/6 "2008-12-15T14:41:46Z")
Jean-baptiste Hétier [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes: > in a solution. > Ne te laisse pas dominer par le langage ! La solution c’est de passer > de MatzacredLisp à Common Lisp (par exemple: [http://clisp.cons.org](http://clisp.cons.org)) : ``` C/USER[4]> (defun décrémenter (x) (1- x)) DÉCRÉMENTER C/USER[5]> (décrémenter 42) 41 C/USER[6]> ``` > In Python you can define the file encoding in some kind > of file header: > #!/usr/bin/python > # -_- coding: -_- > I’m sure there’s a way to do that in Ruby as well, but couldn’t find it > anywhere ☹ AFAIK, python doesn’t use that line. It’s emacs that uses to store buffer local variables. All my scripts start with: ``` #!/usr/bin/clisp -ansi -q ;; -*- mode:lisp; coding:utf-8; -*- ``` ---
**Author:** ![djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djib)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accentuated-function-names/155652/7 "2008-12-15T13:44:48Z")
F. Senault wrote: > It has. In Ruby 1.9. Excellent ! Thanks Fred. ---
**Author:** ![djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@djib](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/djib)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accentuated-function-names/155652/8 "2008-12-15T14:50:37Z")
In article [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid), Jean-baptiste Hétier [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Yeah, I’ll probably switch back to English… but I’m still interested > in a solution. In Python you can define the file encoding in some kind > of file header: > #!/usr/bin/python > # -_- coding: -_- As it was already said, 1.9 does support the Encoding string but for 1.8, you may want to try adding “-Ku” to your Ruby invocation. 395 [14:46] roberto@roberto-al:/tmp\> ruby -Ku foo.rb Bonjour 396 [14:46] roberto@roberto-al:/tmp\> cat foo.rb #! /opt/local/bin/ruby -Ku # def été(foo) puts(foo) end été(“Bonjour”) With foo.rb written with utf-8 encoding.