I realize this is better posted to the Arduino forum, but I have tried numerous times to create an account there, and never receive the confirmation e-mail, so can't make posts.  I'm hoping someone here can tell me WTF I'm doing wrong.....

I'm trying to create a new User library object, but I'm running into a really bizarre problem.  I have stripped the code down to the bare bones, and the errors are still there.  Here is all the code:

FlashCopy.h:

#ifndef FLASHCOPY_H
#define FLASHCOPY_H

class FlashCopy
{
     public:
           FlashCopy();
           int copy(void);

     private:
};

#endif


FlashCopy.cpp:

#include <FlashCopy.h>

FlashCopy::FlashCopy()
{
}


int FlashCopy::copy(void) {
     return 0;
}


FlashCopyTest.ino:

#include <FlashCopy.h>

FlashCopy flashcopy();

void setup()
{
}

void loop()
{
}


FlashCopy.h and FlashCopy.cpp are in Arduino/libraries/FlashCopy, along with FlashCopy.txt.  FlashCopyTest.ino is in Arduino/FlashCopyTest.  When I compile, I get:

Compiling 'FlashCopyTest' for 'Arduino Pro or Pro Mini (5V, 16 MHz) w/ ATmega328'
FlashCopy.cpp : stray '\357' in program
FlashCopy.cpp : stray '\273' in program
FlashCopy.cpp : stray '\277' in program
FlashCopy.cpp : stray '#' in program
FlashCopy.cpp : expected constructor, destructor, or type conversion before '<' token
FlashCopy.cpp : 'FlashCopy' has not been declared
Error compiling


I'm especially baffled by the "stray 'xxx' in program errors.  Those are not even printable characters, and there are no such characters in any of the files.  I have seen this before, always when trying to create new libraries.  In the past, I've just fiddled with things until they went away, without ever really knowing what was happening.  This time, I've been unable to make it work, even when stripped to the skeleton library above.

Regards,
Ray L.

Hi Ray,

I've seen this before a couple of times. The source code just needs to be saved once forcing ANSI format. This will covert international unicode characters (sometimes can't be seen) to ANSI. From then on VS then will continue to save the file correctly as ANSI.

Solution

Open the cpp with notepad and click "save as". Notice the "Encoding" combo box. Change it to ANSI and then click Save