Joel VanderWerf wrote:
> 
> Gilles Filippini wrote:
> >         http://www.ruby-talk.org/blade/31020
> >
> > |  require "irb/main"
> > |  IRB.start
> >
> > How is it different from your solution?
> 
> Hm, there doesn't seem to be an irb/main on my system, and my irb
> install is only a few days old.

I've tried it:
	- on Windows    => OK.
	- on GNU/Linux  => no irb/main but
		require "irb"
		IRB.start
	  is OK.

> The reasons for the IRB.start_session as opposed to just IRB.start
> (which is what start_session is based on) are:
> 
>  1. start_session doesn't expect to be invoked from the command line,
>     though if you do, and pass it a script file, it will execute it,
> 
>  2. it leaves the Irb object in $irb, and only calls IRB initialization
>     when the first Irb object is created, so you can exit the IRB
> session
>     (with ^D), and then the app can can start_session again later,
>  3. you can specify the object to be used as self when the session
> starts
>     i.e., IRB.start_session([1,2,3]) starts a session in which self is
>     [1,2,3].

Thanks for the details.

_gilles.