Ruby in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference

by Yukihiro Matsumoto

Overview

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.With Ruby in a Nutshell, Matsumoto offers a practical reference to the features of this new language including the command-line options, syntax, built-in variables, functions, and many commonly used classes and modules. This guide covers the current stable version of Ruby (1.6), yet is applicable to the development version 1.7 and the next planned stable version 1.8. You will find a thorough description of Ruby's language syntax, and a description of the core functionality built into the standard Ruby interpreter, which has more than 800 built-in methods in 42 classes and modules.Ruby finds its power through its built-in libraries, and this handy volume take you through the many useful libraries that come with the standard Ruby distribution--from network access via HTTP and CGI programming, to data persistence using the DBM library. This book concludes with coverage of the unique tools that come with Ruby, including the debugger, profiler, and irb (or interactive ruby.)Find out how Ruby combines the strengths of other languages, and why it has captured the interest of so many open source programmers. As part of the successful "in a nutshell" series of books from O'Reilly & Associates, Ruby in a Nutshell is for readers who want a single desktop reference for all their needs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449378806
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/13/2001
Series:	In a Nutshell (O'Reilly)
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	222
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Yukihiro Matsumoto ("Matz") is the creator of Ruby. He is a professional programmer who has worked for netlab.co.jp, a Japanese open source company and has been developing Ruby since 1993. Matz has 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 that has become known outside of Japan.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
Chapter 1	Introduction	1
	Ruby's Elegance	1
	Ruby in Action	3
Chapter 2	Language Basics	5
	Command-Line Options	5
	Environment Variables	7
	Lexical Conventions	8
	Literals	9
	Variables	15
	Operators	17
	Methods	20
	Control Structures	25
	Object-Oriented Programming	29
	Security	33
Chapter 3	Built-in Library Reference	36
	Predefined Variables	36
	Predefined Global Constants	38
	Built-in Functions	39
	Built-in Library	47
Chapter 4	Standard Library Reference	110
	Standard Library	110
Chapter 5	Ruby Tools	166
	Standard Tools	166
	Additional Tools	173
	Ruby Application Archive	174
Chapter 6	Ruby Updates	176
	Summary of Changes	176
	The Future of Ruby	178
	Participate in Ruby	179
	Index	181

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
Another programming language? Why? Well, Ruby is powerful, expressive, simple, elegant, intuitive, consistent, flexible, cross-platform, and free. OK, some or all of those adjectives fit other languages, too. But Ruby programmers swear, above all, that Ruby is fun. It doesn't get in your way. Programs work the way you expect. There are fewer bugs. When you reread your code later, you actually understand it. Wow.

Ruby comes to us from Japan, and one of its few disadvantages has been a dearth of English-language documentation. Now Yukihiro Matsumoto, the language's creator, working with translator David L. Reynolds, has delivered the authoritative quick reference developers have been waiting for.

Ruby in a Nutshell is concise: barely 200 pages. But it covers all of the language's syntax, predefined variables and global constants, built-in functions and library, and standard bundled libraries for networking, web/email support, and database management. It addresses both the current version (1.65) and key enhancements planned for version 1.8. It also briefly introduces the Ruby debugger and related development tools.

Once you start working with Ruby, you'll keep finding more excuses to use it -- and more opportunities to wear out your copy of Ruby in a Nutshell. (Bill Camarda)

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. He served for nearly ten years as vice president of a New Jersey–based marketing company, where he supervised a wide range of graphics and web design projects. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.

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