Ruby Introduction
Ruby is a pure object-oriented programming language. It was created by Yukihiro Matsumoto (まつもとゆきひろ/Yukihiro Matsumoto) from Japan in 1993.
You can find the name Yukihiro Matsumoto (まつもとゆきひろ/Yukihiro Matsumoto) on the Ruby mailing list at www.ruby-lang.org. In the Ruby community, Matsumoto is also known as Matz.
Ruby is "A 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. Using Ruby syntax is easier than using Smalltalk syntax.
Features of Ruby
Ruby is open source and freely available on the Web, but it is subject to 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 into Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
Ruby syntax is simple, making it easy for new developers to learn quickly.
Ruby has a syntax similar 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 for developing 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 can easily 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 Will Need
To execute the examples discussed in this tutorial, you need a computer with at least 2GB of RAM (4GB recommended) and an Intel Core i3 or i5 processor. 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 higher web browser
Ruby 1.8.5
This tutorial will introduce how to create GUI, network, and web applications using Ruby. Additionally, it will discuss how to extend and embed Ruby applications.
What's Next?
The next chapter will introduce where you can obtain Ruby and its documentation. Finally, it will guide you on how to install Ruby and configure the environment for developing Ruby applications.