Introduction to Ruby


Ruby is a pure object-oriented programming language. It was founded in 1993 by Yukihiro Matsumoto from Japan.

You can find Yukihiro Matsumoto's name on the Ruby mailing list at www.ruby-lang.org. In the Ruby community, Matsumoto is also known as Matz.

Ruby is "the programmer's best friend".

Ruby features are similar to Smalltalk, Perl, and Python. Perl, Python and Smalltalk are scripting languages. Smalltalk is a true object-oriented language. Ruby, like Smalltalk, is a perfect object-oriented language. It's much easier to use Ruby's syntax than Smalltalk's.

Features of Ruby

  • Ruby is open source and freely available on the Web, but requires a license.

  • Ruby is a general-purpose, interpreted programming language.

  • Ruby is a true object-oriented programming language.

  • Ruby is a server-side scripting language similar to Python and Perl.

  • Ruby can be used to write Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts.

  • Ruby can be embedded in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

  • Ruby has a simple syntax, which makes it quick and easy for new developers to learn Ruby.

  • Ruby has a similar syntax to many programming languages ​​such as C++ and Perl.

  • Ruby is highly scalable and large programs written in Ruby are easy to maintain.

  • Ruby can be used to develop Internet and intranet applications.

  • Ruby can be installed in Windows and POSIX environments.

  • Ruby supports many GUI tools such as Tcl/Tk, GTK, and OpenGL.

  • Ruby makes it easy to connect to DB2, MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase.

  • Ruby has a rich set of built-in functions that can be used directly in Ruby scripts.

Tools You Need

In order to perform the examples discussed in this tutorial, you will need an Intel Core i3 or i5 computer with at least 2GB of RAM (4GB recommended) . You will also need the following software:

  • Linux or Windows 95/98/2000/NT or Windows 7 operating system

  • Apache 1.3.19- 5 Web Server

  • Internet Explorer 5.0 or above Web browser

  • Ruby 1.8.5

This tutorial will show you how to create GUI, network and web applications using Ruby. It also discusses how to extend and embed Ruby applications.

What will you learn next?

The next chapter will show you where to get Ruby and its documentation. Finally, it shows you how to install Ruby and configure your environment in preparation for developing Ruby applications.