1. Introduction to Ruby

Ruby is a pure object-oriented programming script language.

Ruby has features that are similar to those of 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 much easier than using Smalltalk syntax.

Features of Ruby

• Ruby is an open-source and is 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 has a clean and easy syntax that allows a new developer to learn Ruby very quickly and easily.
• Ruby has similar syntax to that of many programming languages such as C++ and Perl.
• Ruby is very much scalable and big programs written in Ruby are easily maintainable.
• Ruby can be used for developing Internet and intranet applications.
• Ruby can be installed in Windows and POSIX environments.
• Ruby support many GUI tools such as Tcl/Tk, GTK, and OpenGL.
• Ruby can easily be connected to DB2, MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase.
• Ruby has a rich set of built-in functions, which can be used directly into Ruby scripts.

Tools You Will Need

For performing the examples discussed in this tutorial, you will need:

• Linux or Windows operating system
• Apache Web server(optional)
• Ruby(Latest version)

This tutorial will provide the necessary skills to automate web.