Strange paste, string or package problem?

Hi

I came across this strange bug the other day, I'm not sure how to solve it
and I wonder if anyone can even replicate it.

Using OS Ubuntu 7.10

Step 1) Make an R package using the package.skeleton() command with
only these two functions:

error <- function(){
 cmd <- paste(" -a ",1," -a ",1," -a ",1,
              " -a ",1," -a ",1," -a ",1,
              " -a ",1," -a ",1," -a ",1,
              " -a ",1," -a ",1," -a ",1,
              " ?a ",1,sep="")
 cat(cmd,"\n")
}
noerror <- function(){
 cmd <- paste(" -a ",1," -a ",1," -a ",1,
              " -a ",1," -a ",1," -a ",1,
              " -a ",1," -a ",1," -a ",1,
              " -a ",1," -a ",1," -a ",1,sep="")
 cat(cmd,"\n")
}

Step 2) Start R again. Load the package with library() and run the commands:
error()
noerror()

I get the following output:
library(errors)
error()
-a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 <e2><80><93>a 1
noerror()
-a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1 -a 1

Now why does that "<e2><80><93>" replace one of the "-" in the first command?
Because you put it there!  I believe that at the first step you were 
running R in a UTF-8 locale, and at the second in (probably) an 8-bit 
locale.  I can reproduce this by changing from en_GB.utf8 to en_GB on F8, 
for example.

<e2><80><93> is UTF-8 for the Unicode point U+2013, the en dash.  I don't 
know how you managed to enter that in UTF-8 (I would have not have 
expected it to be accidentally possible from the keyboard), but the 
solution is to use hyphen where you intend hyphen.  (Unicode calls this 
'HYPHEN-MINUS' to indicate its dual role -- it also has U+2212 for minus.)
Any ideas?

Cheers

Tom

--
Thomas Allen
Department of Biochemistry
University of Otago
email1: hedbag at gmail.com
email2: allth025 at student.otago.ac.nz
Work: (+64)3 479 5123
Mobile: 027 321 4269

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Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
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Strange paste, string or package problem?

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