// description of your code here

str = <<HTML_TEXT



  
Application error
  
Change this error message for exceptions thrown outside of an action (like 
in Dispatcher setups or broken Ruby code) in public/500.html


HTML_TEXT

puts str.gsub(/<\/?[^>]*>/, "")

The regex below removes html tags from string (untested).

str = <<HTML_TEXT



  
Application error
  
Change this error message for exceptions thrown outside of an action (like 
in Dispatcher setups or broken Ruby code) in public/500.html


HTML_TEXT

puts str.gsub(/<\/?[^>]*>/, "")

// *UNTESTED*
// Strips complete and incomplete HTML tags from $html

function strip_bad_tags($html)
{
   $s = preg_replace ("@]*>*@", "", $html);
   return $s;
}