Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB or irb) is a REPL for programming in the object-orientedscripting languageRuby. The abbreviation irb comes from the fact that the filename extension for Ruby is ".rb", although interactive Ruby files do not have an extension of ".irb". The program is launched from a command line and allows the execution of Ruby commands with immediate response, experimenting in real-time. It features command history, line editing capabilities, and job control, and is able to communicate directly as a shell script over the Internet and interact with a live server. It was developed by Keiju Ishitsuka. Program usage: irb (options ) (''programfile'' ) (''argument...'' ) Example usage: irb(main):001:0> n = 5 => 5 irb(main):002:0> def fact(n) irb(main):003:1> if n <= 1 irb(main):004:2> 1 irb(main):005:2> else irb(main):006:2 * n * fact(n - 1) irb(main):007:2> end irb(main):008:1> end => :fact irb(main):009:0> fact(n) => 120