title: How can I pass <arguments> to IRB if I don't specify <programfile>?
body: <p>Since: </p>
  
  <pre><code>irb --help
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Usage:  irb.rb [options] [programfile] [arguments]</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>I know I can pass arguments to ARGV if I include a <em>programfile</em></p>
  
  <p>eg:</p>
  
  <pre><code>irb test.rb A B C
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>where test.irb is simply "p ARGV"</p>
  
  <p>produces:</p>
  
  <p>["a", "b", "c"]</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Making <em>programfile</em> be <strong>con</strong> in DOS... I can do following</p>
  
  <pre><code>irb con A B C
  con(main):001:0&gt; ARGV
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>produces:</p>
  
  <p>ARGV<br>
  => ["A", "B", "C"]</p>
  
  <p>but this is system dependent and has the side effect of echoing input :-(</p>
  
  <p>What i really like is something like </p>
  
  <pre><code>irb -- a b c
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>BTW: I know I can set ARGV inside irb but I my intention is to alias special == irb -rSpecialLibrary" so I can do something like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>special A B C
  &lt;input goes here&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any suggestions?</p>