title: Getting an ASCII character code in Ruby using `?` (question mark) fails
body: <p>I'm in a situation where I need the ASCII value of a character (for <a href="http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=problems&amp;id=22" rel="noreferrer">Project Euler question #22</a>, if you want to get specific) and I'm running into an issue.</p>
  
  <p>Being new to ruby, I googled it, and found that <code>?</code> was the way to go: <code>?A</code> or whatever. But when I incorporate it into my code, the result of that statement is the string <code>"A"</code>—no character code. Same issue with <code>[0]</code> and <code>slice(0)</code>, both of which should theoretically return the ASCII code.</p>
  
  <p>The only thing I can think of is that this is a ruby version issue. I'm using 1.9.1-p0, having upgraded from 1.8.6 this afternoon. I cheated a little going from a working version of Ruby, in the same directory, I figured I probably already had the files that don't come bundled with the .zip file, so I didn't download them.</p>
  
  <p>So why exactly are all my ASCII codes being turned into actual characters?</p>