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

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 2

There is an irb tool to help autocomplete

require 'irb/completion'

Answer 3

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.