English

Include the English library file in a Ruby script, and you can reference the global variables such as VAR{$_} using less cryptic names, listed in the following table.% vref{tab:english}.

Without ‘English’:

$\ = ' -- '
"waterbuffalo" =~ /buff/
print $", $', $$, "\n"

With English:

require "English"

$OUTPUT_FIELD_SEPARATOR = ' -- '
"waterbuffalo" =~ /buff/
print $LOADED_FEATURES, $POSTMATCH, $PID, "\n"

Below is a full list of descriptive aliases and their associated global variable:

$ERROR_INFO	$!
$ERROR_POSITION	$@
$FS	$;
$FIELD_SEPARATOR	$;
$OFS	$,
$OUTPUT_FIELD_SEPARATOR	$,
$RS	$/
$INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR	$/
$ORS	$\
$OUTPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR	$\
$INPUT_LINE_NUMBER	$.
$NR	$.
$LAST_READ_LINE	$_
$DEFAULT_OUTPUT	$>
$DEFAULT_INPUT	$<
$PID	$$
$PROCESS_ID	$$
$CHILD_STATUS	$?
$LAST_MATCH_INFO	$~
$IGNORECASE	$=
$ARGV	$*
$MATCH	$&
$PREMATCH	$`
$POSTMATCH	$‘
$LAST_PAREN_MATCH	$+