From: Jeremy Henty <onepoint@...>
Date: 2009-03-24T21:21:54+09:00
Subject: [Q&A]: HOWTO start irb on a different object

I wanted to have irb start its session on an object other than the
toplevel.  I found a solution that I think is nicer than any I could
find elsewhere.  The idea is to hook into IRB::Irb#initialize and
insert the WorkSpace object that you want.

    require "irb"

    class IRB::Irb
      alias initialize_orig initialize
      def initialize(workspace = nil, *args)
	default = IRB.conf[:DEFAULT_OBJECT]
	workspace ||= IRB::WorkSpace.new default if default
	initialize_orig(workspace, *args)
      end
    end

Now, if  your .irbrc sets IRB.conf[:DEFAULT_OBJECT],  that becomes the
initial object for the irb session.

I am tempted to propose this as a change to irb.  Thoughts?

Regards,

Jeremy Henty