# File lib/pygments/popen.rb, line 180
    def highlight(code, opts={})
      # If the caller didn't give us any code, we have nothing to do,
      # so return right away.
      return code if code.nil? || code.empty?

      # Callers pass along options in the hash
      opts[:options] ||= {}

      # Default to utf-8 for the output encoding, if not given.
      opts[:options][:outencoding] ||= 'utf-8'

      # Get back the string from mentos and force encoding if we can
      str = mentos(:highlight, nil, opts, code)
      str.force_encoding(opts[:options][:outencoding]) if str.respond_to?(:force_encoding)
      str
    end