Document the long form of global variables and mention aliases on the same line

* The longer forms are self-explanatory and I believe more often used.
* Same for ARGV and ARGF, describe them there and mention $* and $< just refer to them.

1 files changed, 14 insertions, 21 deletions

diff --git a/doc/globals.rdoc b/doc/globals.rdoc
index c4aacd4707..b2dbcee1c7 100644
--- a/doc/globals.rdoc
+++ b/doc/globals.rdoc
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # -*- mode: rdoc; coding: utf-8; fill-column: 74; -*-
 
-== Pre-defined variables
+== Pre-defined global variables
 
 $!::   The exception information message set by 'raise'.
 $@::   Array of backtrace of the last exception thrown.
@@ -11,46 +11,40 @@ $+::   The highest group matched by the last successful match.
 $1::   The Nth group of the last successful match. May be > 1.
 $~::   The information about the last match in the current scope.
 $=::   This variable is no longer effective. Deprecated.
-$/::   The input record separator, newline by default.
+$/::   The input record separator, newline by default. Aliased to $-0.
 $\::   The output record separator for the print and IO#write. Default is nil.
 $,::   The output field separator for the print and Array#join. Non-nil $, will be deprecated.
-$;::   The default separator for String#split. Non-nil $; will be deprecated.
+$;::   The default separator for String#split. Non-nil $; will be deprecated. Aliased to $-F.
 $.::   The current input line number of the last file that was read.
-$<::   The virtual concatenation file of the files given on command line (or from $stdin if no files were given).
+$<::   The same as ARGF.
 $>::   The default output for print, printf. $stdout by default.
 $_::   The last input line of string by gets or readline.
 $0::   Contains the name of the script being executed. May be assignable.
-$*::   Command line arguments given for the script sans args.
+$*::   The same as ARGV.
 $$::   The process number of the Ruby running this script.
 $?::   The status of the last executed child process.  This value is
        thread-local.
-$:::   Load path for scripts and binary modules by load or require.
-$"::   The array contains the module names loaded by require.
+$LOAD_PATH::   Load path for scripts and binary modules by load or require.
+               Aliased to $: and $-I.
+$LOADED_FEATURES::   The array contains the module names loaded by require.
+                     Aliased to $".
 $DEBUG::     The debug flag, which is set by the -d switch.  Enabling debug
              output prints each exception raised to $stderr (but not its
              backtrace).  Setting this to a true value enables debug output as
              if -d were given on the command line.  Setting this to a false
-             value disables debug output.
-$LOADED_FEATURES:: The alias to the $".
-$FILENAME::  Current input file from $<. Same as $<.filename.
-$LOAD_PATH:: The alias to the $:.
+             value disables debug output. Aliased to $-d.
+$FILENAME::  Current input filename from ARGF. Same as ARGF.filename.
 $stderr::    The current standard error output.
 $stdin::     The current standard input.
 $stdout::    The current standard output.
 $VERBOSE::   The verbose flag, which is set by the -w or -v switch.  Setting
              this to a true value enables warnings as if -w or -v were given
              on the command line.  Setting this to nil disables warnings,
-             including from Kernel#warn.
-$-0::  The alias to $/.
+             including from Kernel#warn. Aliased to $-v and $-w.
 $-a::  True if option -a is set. Read-only variable.
-$-d::  The alias of $DEBUG.  See $DEBUG above for further discussion.
-$-F::  The alias to $;.
 $-i::  In in-place-edit mode, this variable holds the extension, otherwise nil.
-$-I::  The alias to $:.
 $-l::  True if option -l is set. Read-only variable.
 $-p::  True if option -p is set. Read-only variable.
-$-v::  An alias of $VERBOSE.  See $VERBOSE above for further discussion.
-$-w::  An alias of $VERBOSE.  See $VERBOSE above for further discussion.
 
 == Pre-defined global constants
 
@@ -61,10 +55,9 @@ STDIN::             The standard input. The default value for $stdin.
 STDOUT::            The standard output. The default value for $stdout.
 STDERR::            The standard error output. The default value for $stderr.
 ENV::               The hash contains current environment variables.
-ARGF::              The alias to the $<.
-ARGV::              The alias to the $*.
+ARGF::              The virtual concatenation of the files given on command line (or from $stdin if no files were given).
+ARGV::              An Array of command line arguments given for the script.
 DATA::              The file object of the script, pointing just after __END__.
 RUBY_VERSION::      The ruby version string (VERSION was deprecated).
 RUBY_RELEASE_DATE:: The release date string.
 RUBY_PLATFORM::     The platform identifier.
-