ask-wikipedia.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'open-uri'
require 'json'

language = 'en'

article = ARGV[0] ||
  begin
    print 'What do you need to know? : '
    URI::encode gets.chomp
  end

request_url = "http://#{language}.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse&page=#{article}&format=json&prop=text&section=0&redirects"

open(request_url) do |file|
  puts JSON.parse(file.read())['parse']['text'].first[1]
    .gsub(/<\/?[^>]+>/, '') # strip tags
    .gsub(/[[:space:]]+/, ' ') # strip whitespace
    .gsub(/&#[0-9]+;/,'') # strip encoded
    .gsub(/\[[0-9]+\]/,'') # strip referencing
end