gistfile1.rbx

%w[rubygems RedCloth stringray].each {|dep| require dep }

class RedCloth::TextileDoc
  def clean(*rules)
    # Fragile! Oh well. )-:
    out = to_html.gsub(/<\/?[^>]*>/, "")
    out.gsub(/\&\#[0123456789]+\;/, "?") # Replace entities with a question mark
  end
end

String.send :include, StringRay

textile = RedCloth.new("A *TESTING* string!")
characters = words = textile.clean.length
words = textile.clean.to_stray.select {|w| w.is_a? StringRay::Word }.size

p [characters, words]