Are there any iPython-like shells for Ruby or Rails?

Question

I love iPython and am learning RoR along with some libraries like Mechanize and I'd like to be able to easily see what I'm working with in terms of introspection. I would like to be able to type "." + TAB and see.

Answer 1

There is an irb tool to help autocomplete

require 'irb/completion'

Answer 2

You should definetively take a look at Pry (an IRB alternative and runtime developer console). It isn't as advanced as the current version of IPython, but it's the most advanced developer console we have in Ruby.

Answer 3

try IRB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Ruby_Shell, or the rails console http://guides.rubyonrails.org/command_line.html. I don't know if either of them have autocomplete, but they are quality tools.

Answer 4

There is an IPython notebook backed by Ruby kernel. Details about the project

Answer 5

Wirble is a convenient, if infrequently-updated way of bringing together some of these tools. It's not quite as complete as iPython, but gets pretty close. Among other things, it pulls in irb/completion.

For rails, you can do the same, but use script/console from your rails' root directory to start irb.