Setting up the Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB) for non-english keyboards on Windows XP

For some reason it is difficult to use the [] and {} characters when using IRB with a non-english keyboard on Windows XP. To get it working together with tab completion:

1. Create a new environment variable called “HOME” and set it to your user home folder (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\peterk).

2. Create a text dcument called “.inputrc” in your user home folder with the following content:

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   "M-[": "[" "M-]": "]" "M-{": "{" "M-}": "}" "M-\": "\" "M-|": "|" "M-@": "@" "M-~": "~"

3. Make sure irb.bat is using the –readline option (irb.bat is located in the bin folder of your ruby installation).

That’s it!