diff --git a/lib/ace/mode/ruby_highlight_rules.js b/lib/ace/mode/ruby_highlight_rules.js
index d6cb871e..1d6b94ce 100644
--- a/lib/ace/mode/ruby_highlight_rules.js
+++ b/lib/ace/mode/ruby_highlight_rules.js
@@ -40,13 +40,10 @@ define(function(require, exports, module) {
 
 var oop = require("pilot/oop");
 var lang = require("pilot/lang");
-var DocCommentHighlightRules = require("ace/mode/doc_comment_highlight_rules").DocCommentHighlightRules;
 var TextHighlightRules = require("ace/mode/text_highlight_rules").TextHighlightRules;
 
 RubyHighlightRules = function() {
 
-    var docComment = new DocCommentHighlightRules();
-
     var builtinFunctions = lang.arrayToMap(
         ("abort|Array|at_exit|autoload|binding|block_given?|callcc|caller|catch|chomp|chomp!|chop|chop!|eval|exec|exit|exit!" +
         "fail|Float|fork|format|gets|global_variables|gsub|gsub!|Integer|lambda|load|local_variables|loop|open|p|print|" +
@@ -65,11 +62,9 @@ RubyHighlightRules = function() {
     );
 
     var builtinVariables = lang.arrayToMap(
-        ("$DEBUG|$defout|$FILENAME|$LOAD_PATH|$SAFE|$stdin|$stdout|$stderr|$VERBOSE").split("|")
+        ("\\$DEBUG|\\$defout|\\$FILENAME|\\$LOAD_PATH|\\$SAFE|\\$stdin|\\$stdout|\\$stderr|\\$VERBOSE").split("|")
     );
 
-    var futureReserved = lang.arrayToMap([]);
-
     // regexp must not have capturing parentheses. Use (?:) instead.
     // regexps are ordered -> the first match is used
 
@@ -81,10 +76,6 @@ RubyHighlightRules = function() {
 	        },
 	        docComment.getStartRule("doc-start"),
 	        {
-	            token : "comment", // multi line comment
-	            regex : "^=begin",
-	            next : "comment"
-	        }, {
 	            token : "string.regexp",
 	            regex : "[/](?:(?:\\[(?:\\\\]|[^\\]])+\\])|(?:\\\\/|[^\\]/]))*[/]\\w*\\s*(?=[).,;]|$)"
 	        }, {
@@ -148,10 +139,6 @@ RubyHighlightRules = function() {
         ],
         "comment" : [
 	        {
-	            token : "comment", // closing comment
-	            regex : "^=end",
-	            next : "start"
-	        }, {
 	            token : "comment", // comment spanning whole line
 	            regex : ".+"
 	        }