what does '\xB8' mean?

[lcs01]

I've seen a piece of perl code like this:

# $myfile is a ascii file
open TSCRIPTFILE, "$myfile" || die;
local $/ = "\f"; 
# ......
while (<TSCRIPTFILE>) {
  chomp;
  $_ =~ s/\xB8/\n\xB8/g;
  #......
}
close(TSCRIPTFILE);
exit;

My questions are

1) What does \xB8 mean?
2) I'd guess this has something to do with a newline break. But why should it be treated this way?
3) Could someone recommend a web site that explains the meanings of all these special characters, such as '\xB8', '\xB9', etc?
4) Lastly, is '\xB8' the same as '\xb8'?

Thank you for your help.

 

[KevinADC]

\xB8 looks like UTF8 encoded characters, but I don't know what character that is.

- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[KevinADC]

as ar as websites explaining UTF8:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=UTF8&btnG=Search

- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[ishnid]

According to this site, it's a cedilla.

That regexp inserts a newline before all cedilla characters.

 

[lcs01]

Thank you, Kevin and ishnid. But I still don't understand why someone in my company singled this character out. Strange.

But again, thank you both.

 

[PaulTEG]

\xB8 = B8 ₁₆ = 1011 0110₂ = 182₁₀

Paul
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