Hello Austin,
Please see my more recent post about "IRB Power User's Guide".
I learn more by "hacking" than any other way.  IRB seems like an ideal 
way to hack.  Actually, I have been trying various bits and pieces of 
code from various books, the latest being "Everyday Scripting with 
Ruby".  Seems like a decent book.  I was having one of those mental 
disconnect moments of not being able to grasp what the author was trying 
to explain in chapter 7 of his book, i.e., test driven development.  In 
that foggy state of mind, I started trying to type in his assertions 
into the irb console to see what happens and focus my mind.  Up until 
now, everything that I have tried in irb usually works, but I was 
stopped here due to my lack of knowledge about IRB's capabilities.  In 
retrospect, as you and others are pointing out, I should probably not 
try to use to the irb "hammer" to drive in every "nail" in sight.
So, in a nutshell, that was my motivation in asking this question.
Thanks a bunch though for your time and thoughtful explanations.
Regards,
Bharat

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.