[SOLVED] ruby interpreter doesn't work in interactive mode in FC 16

[tashirosgt]

In installed ruby on FC 16 using yum. When I type the command "ruby" in a terminal in FC 16, the terminal scrolls down a line, but no prompt appears for the Ruby interpreter. This happens in both a XFCE terminal and in the console from CTRL-ALT-F2. I can type ruby expressions like

puts "hello world"

but they don't execute. With random typing, I do get syntax error messages that don't make any sense to me.

When I run a *.rb file with ruby, it works.

Is my knowledge of ruby out of date? (I have the 2nd edition of the pickaxe book, but not the 3rd). I thought the command ruby was supposed to start an interactive session of the ruby interpreter.

]$ ruby --version
ruby 1.8.7 (2012-02-08 patchlevel 358) [x86_64-linux]

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by tashirosgt

I thought the command ruby was supposed to start an interactive session of the ruby interpreter.

No, it never has as far as I know; it's just an interpreter, not a REPL. You need to run the irb command, which is part of the ruby-irb package in Fedora.

[tashirosgt]

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

. You need to run the irb command, which is part of the ruby-irb package in Fedora.

Thank you for that information.