# Irb weirdness **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [April 28, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-weirdness/136082 "2008-04-28T19:44:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-weirdness/136082/1 "2008-04-28T19:44:36Z")
Has anybody else had this happen to them in irb? You run something in irb that outputs to the screen without a terminating \n then the cursor ends up in weird places. If you hit the up arrow it does weird, funky things ex: [after running something that threw an exception, then hitting the up arrow] from (irb):11\>\> Program.create :name =\> ‘BSpment’, :program\_code =\> ‘BSIT’, :is\_online =\> kape\_level\_id =\> 6, :school =\> 3 ^ the cursor is here. Also another weirdness: sometimes in irb it ‘disallows’ you from adding input to the end of whatever line you’re typing on. [This may or may not be associated with hitting ctrl-e to get to the end of the line first]. You just can’t type. Backspace works, forward typing doesn’t. Thoughts? -R ---
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-weirdness/136082/2 "2008-04-28T20:05:59Z")
On 28.04.2008 19:43, Roger P. wrote: > kape\_level\_id =\> 6, :school =\> 3 > ^ the cursor is here. > > Also another weirdness: sometimes in irb it ‘disallows’ you from > adding input to the end of whatever line you’re typing on. [This may > or may not be associated with hitting ctrl-e to get to the end of the > line first]. You just can’t type. Backspace works, forward typing > doesn’t. I would assume that this is less an issue of IRB but rather of the combination terminal you are using and screen library. You did not mention operating system, Ruby version and terminal type. Kind regards robert ---
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-weirdness/136082/3 "2008-04-28T22:05:47Z")
On 28.04.2008 20:57, Roger P. wrote: > Good call. > Turns out that using xterm on the same computer and the bugs seem to > go away [versus OS X Terminal]. Might be related to terminal type propagation via SSH (I am assuming you tried remotely before). You can try to explicitly set TERM (e.g. “export TERM=xterm” in a bash). > Seems to only happen in Terminal and I think in the win32 console. > Hmm. Are you talking about different computers? First you mention Mac and now Win… Cheers robert ---
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-weirdness/136082/4 "2008-04-28T20:58:25Z")
Good call. Turns out that using xterm on the same computer and the bugs seem to go away [versus OS X Terminal]. Seems to only happen in Terminal and I think in the win32 console. Hmm. -R > I would assume that this is less an issue of IRB but rather of the > combination terminal you are using and screen library. You did not mention > operating system, Ruby version and terminal type. > 1.8.6. ---
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-weirdness/136082/5 "2008-04-29T01:36:50Z")
This is on Mac OS localhost. I think you may have been onto something by blaming the Terminal program itself, as it seems to work in xterm. I mention windows as I believe I’ve run into this problem [and all the time] running a console in windows, though I don’t have one handy to test my hypothesis. > Might be related to terminal type propagation via SSH (I am assuming you > tried remotely before). You can try to explicitly set TERM (e.g. “export > TERM=xterm” in a bash). > Unfortunately even this is not enough to help out OS X’s terminal 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rogerdpack](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rogerdpack)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/irb-weirdness/136082/6 "2008-04-29T19:58:04Z")
> I think you may have been onto something by blaming the Terminal > program itself, as it seems to work in xterm. > In Eterm + os x the ‘right arrow’ bug is there but not the new line > difficulty. Weird.