# Troubles Extending IRB

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/troubles-extending-irb/63242>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 13, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/troubles-extending-irb/63242 "2006-06-13T14:44:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mhinton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/8edcca/32.png) [@mhinton](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mhinton)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/troubles-extending-irb/63242/1 "2006-06-13T14:44:14Z")

</div>

Hi,

I’m having troubles extending IRB and the purpose for me trying to  
extend to IRB is so that I can integrate it into a GTK widget.

If anyone has seen the infamous Python console in gedit and Epiphany  
([http://raphael.slinckx.net/images/gedit-python.png](http://raphael.slinckx.net/images/gedit-python.png)), this is what I’d  
like to do with IRB.

My ultimate goal is to use the Syntax library  
([http://syntax.rubyforge.org](http://syntax.rubyforge.org)) to create a custom syntax highlighting  
widget using Gtk::TextView and write a full-fledged Ruby programmer’s  
editor and create countless plugins, the first one being the IRB GTK  
console.

Ever since I’ve seen the Python console I’ve been fascinated by it and  
thought Ruby should have something like it.

Unfortunately I am unable to understand 80% of IRB’s code (badly  
indented and underdocumented.

I’ve tried understanding out IRB::InputMethod works, and I’ve got that  
part down and working in the GTK console, but I can’t seem to have it  
work with output that well.

I pass it code, and it doesn’t evaluate until I hand it multi-byte  
characters (Korean) and at which point IRB just halts (even from the  
terminal, for some odd reason).

I’ve seen that \_why has been able to do something of what I want using  
his TryRuby program at [http://tryruby.hobix.com](http://tryruby.hobix.com).

If everything else fails, I plan to use the Syntax library’s excellent  
tokenizer to create my own extendable Ruby prompt, but if possible I’d  
like to use existing tools and widely known projects, such as IRB.

I hear I can do this in a unnatural way using IO redirection, but I’m  
not familiar with the underlying concepts of IO.