sort-columns and non-ascii character

[Nigel O'Brian]

Version:
GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i386-debian-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
of 2002-03-23 on raven, modified by Debian

[recent install of Debian sid package emacs21_21.2-1_i386.deb]

Description:
I am visiting a file containing non-ascii characters which display as
'\200'. Here is the hexlified version of a small example

00000000: 4180 0a44 800a 4380 0a42 800a            A..D..C..B..


which looks like

A\200
D\200
C\200
B\200

in the buffer.

Set mark and point to enclose the whole rectangular region of text
and do M-x sort-columns. Emacs dies and disappears instantaneously,
every time.

First observed with a much larger file having some '\200's scattered
around.

Output of locale command
LANG=POSIX
LC_CTYPE="POSIX"
LC_NUMERIC="POSIX"
LC_TIME="POSIX"
LC_COLLATE="POSIX"
LC_MONETARY="POSIX"
LC_MESSAGES="POSIX"
LC_PAPER="POSIX"
LC_NAME="POSIX"
LC_ADDRESS="POSIX"
LC_TELEPHONE="POSIX"
LC_MEASUREMENT="POSIX"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="POSIX"
LC_ALL=

cheers,
N.