Ruby is an absolutely pure object-oriented scripting language written in C and designed with Perl and Python capabilities in mind. While its roots are in Japan, Ruby is slowly but surely gaining ground in the US. The goal of Yukihiro Matsumoto, creator of Ruby and author of this book, is to incorporate the strengths of languages like Perl, Python, Lisp and Smalltalk. Ruby is a genuine attempt to combine the best of everything in the scripting world. Since 1993, Ruby mailing lists have been established, Web pages have formed, and a community has grown around it. The language itself is very good at text processing and is notable for its broad object orientation. Ruby is portable and runs under GNU/Linux (and other Unices) as well as DOS, MS Windows and Mac. Written by Yukihiro Matsumoto ("Matz"), creator of the language, this text is a practical reference guide covering everything from Ruby syntax to the specifications of its standard class libraries. The book is based on Ruby 1.6, and is applicable to development versions 1.7 and the next planned stable version 1.8.

About the Author
Yukihiro Matsumoto is the creator of Ruby. "Matz" is a professional programmer who has worked for netlab.co.jp, a Japanese open source company. He now works on Ruby's web support, including the CGI libraries, and the Apache module to embed Ruby, in a project funded by a Japanese public grant. He's released several open source products, including cmail, the emacs-based mail user agent, written entirely in emacs lisp. Ruby is his first piece of software to become known outside of Japan.


Book Information
ISBN 9780596002145
Author Yukihiro Matsumoto
Format Paperback
Page Count 205
Imprint O'Reilly Media
Publisher O'Reilly Media