What does Ý and ¨mean?

[demecarv]

I have found in some jython scripts created by other employe certain special character Ý where I would expected [.
For certain time, I removed it from the jython script and I ignored the reason for such special charactes appering but now I see again during a very simple command:

Code: Select all

$ sh manageprofiles.sh -listProfiles
Ýdefault¨

Kindly, note that the answer startes with Ý and finishes with ¨ (¨ is diferent from ", e.g. ¨ is diferent from double quotes).
Searching on internet, I found many people telling how to remove it but I would like to know why this is appearing. Could be some configuration on my side messing the file whenever I open it or is that possible that someone purposely place it there?

[Akatsukami]

What code page are you using?

[Robert Sample]

IBM mainframes use two main code pages for EBCDIC -- 037 and 1047. For one of them, and I don't recall right off hand which, the Ý is how the [ bracket is translated and the ¨ is how the ] is translated. You might try changing your edit to HEX ON and see what these characters are (if you can redirect your output to a file). You may wind up doing CHANGE commands to the brackets. X'BA' and X'BB' are the brackets for one and X'AD' and X'BD' are the brackets for the other IIRC.

This is NOT something that anyone is doing to you -- it is a result of the way the different EBCDIC and ASCII code pages work and how the translations are done between them. You don't really want to remove them -- you want them to be brackets, usually. I think I recall finding a way to get the brackets to appear on my terminal, but it has been several years since I dealt with a bracket-oriented language on the mainframe. I may have just done the CHANGE in an EDIT session to fix them.