From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2004-02-06T04:46:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Irb Ri integration (Was: An assimilators guide to Python?)

Charles Comstock wrote:
> Now that we have alot of the standard docs in ri format available in 
> general do we have any integration between ri and irb?  That would be 
> nice to be able to easily call them from within irb.  I mean I suppose 
> you could just call `ri Array` or whatever, but nonetheless it seems 
> some integration is possible.

Put something this in your .irbrc file:

==== .irbrc ====
def ri arg
   puts `ri #{arg}`
end

class Module
   def ri(meth=nil)
     if meth
       if instance_methods(false).include? meth.to_s
         puts `ri #{self}##{meth}`
       else
         super
       end
     else
       puts `ri #{self}`
     end
   end
end
===============

Then you can do:

irb> String.ri
irb> ri String  # same as above
irb> String.ri 'reverse'
irb> ri 'File.new'