irb.step

goals do
  goal "Understand how and when to use irb"
  goal "Understand how to start and stop irb"
  goal "Understand the difference between irb and the command line"
  goal "Execute some simple Ruby statements"
end

step do
  message "irb is the **i**nteractive **r**u**b**y interpreter. It's a program
    that runs Ruby code as you type it in."
  message "Start irb."
  console "irb"
  result "irb: line 001 >"
  message "The prompt changed.  This is irb's way of reminding you that it's
    running, and telling you it's ready."
  message "Hit **Enter** a few times."
  result "irb: line 002 >
irb: line 003 >
irb: line 004 >"

end

step do
   message "irb will run until you quit."
   irb "exit"
   message "You're back at the command line. Notice that the prompt no longer says irb."
   message "`exit` is the guaranteed way to get out of irb. Depending on your
     operating system, Control-C or Control-D on an empty line may also work."
   message "Practice going in and out of irb a couple of times. How can you tell
     when you're in irb?  How can you tell when you're back at the command line?"
end


step do
   message "irb is its own program with its own commands. Although we start it
     from the command line, the commands to change directories and so on don't
     work in irb."
   message "Restart irb."
   console "irb"
   irb "pwd"
   result <<-YIKES
   NameError: undefined local variable or method `pwd' for main:Object
   	from (irb):1
   	from /usr/bin/irb:12:in `<main>'
   YIKES
   message "This ferocious error message is irb saying \"Huh? What??\" because
     only irb understands Ruby."
end

step do
  message "In irb, you can experiment with short pieces of code to figure out what they do."
  irb <<-IRB
5 + 9
109 / 17
2 ** 8
5 > 6
  IRB
  message "What happened after each line? What do you think these statements do?"
end

step do
  message "Lets take a closer look at the output of irb:"
  irb "1 + 2"
  result <<-MESSAGE
1.9.3p125 :015 > 1 + 2
 => 3
1.9.3p125 :016 >
  MESSAGE
  message "Here, `=> 3` is the **return value** of the **statement** `1 + 2`,
    the result of running your code."
  message "Every statement in Ruby has a **return value**: irb shows you that
    value after you type a complete statement and press ENTER."
end


explanation do
  message "irb is a place to experiment and find out how certain language
    features work. It's not a good place to write long programs.  It doesn't let
    you save your work, and it's not a very friendly text editor."
  message "When you write a full-fledged program, you'll save it into a text
    file on your computer.  We'll see this in a later step."
end

next_step "running_programs_from_a_file"