Rick DeNatale wrote:
> On 7/20/07, Tim Hunter <TimHunter / nc.rr.com> wrote:
>> Phlip wrote:
>> > Rubiods:
>> >
>> > After years of studying Ruby, one factoid has eluded me. Actually,
>> more than
>> > one, but I have to start somewhere...
>> >
>> > How, on a command line, can I do the equivalent of 'apropos' or
>> 'man'? How
>> > can I search the RDoc knowledge base installed on my own computer,
>> with a
>> > 'less' interface, without Googling for everything all the time?
>> >
>> >
>> Assuming you installed the documentation, you can use ri.
>>
>> ri String#to_i
>>
>> for example.
> 
> And for a better performing alternative, get Mauricio Fernandez fastri
> http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?fastri
> 
> It provides a qri command which pretty much directly substitutes for
> ri.  It's available as a gem.
> 
IIRC it is *significantly* faster if you install from a tarball rather
than as a gem, but I don't remember why. Can someone enlighten me?