From: "Michael W. Ryder" <_mwryder@...>
Date: 2007-01-23T11:15:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Placing tabs in strings in irb

George Ogata wrote:
> On 1/23/07, Michael W. Ryder <_mwryder@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>> Is there any reason I cannot embed tabs in a string while using irb?  I
>> am trying to create a string using tabs to separate the various values
>> for testing -- i.e. a = '1      2       3       4'.  Using irb it 
>> either  ignores the tab
>> character or places a random value in the string.
>> On a related note why is the value for the above string '1' if I use
>> a.to_i to display it?  I would have expected an error.
> 
> I'm guessing this behavior is due to readline, which is normally
> compiled into into irb if available.  If so, you can also insert tabs
> using M-TAB (a.k.a. alt-tab).  Try "info readline" for more info (or
> google "info readline" if you don't have it available).
> 

Using alt-tab on my XP Pro computer results in another window popping up 
and does not insert a tab character into the string.  I will just have 
to remember to use double quotes and \t for tabs.