IPython's magic %paste silently ignored everything in my clipboard under certain circumstances. The causal agent: a commented ← symbol. This is automatically generated in Google docs by typing <-- and space.
Comparison of outcomes, when copy-pasting with and without a commented ← symbol:
print 'foo' # ←
print 'foo' #
Notice how in the first case (involving ←) IPython simply ignored the content of %paste as if I had an empty clipboard.
Firstly, would anyone who has more knowledge of the code underlying IPython's magic %paste be able to explain why this silent error occurs?
Secondly, what other characters might cause this? What is the unifying property across such characters?
Versions:
IPython 0.13.2
Python 2.6.6
Character Encoding:
en_GB.UTF-8
Terminal:
Bash Xterm