We cover:
- Objects: names and methods
- Data: strings, arrays, hashes, and regular expressions
- Control: if, while, blocks, iterators, and exceptions
- Building blocks: classes and modules
- YAML and marshaling
- Common idioms that you’ll see used in this book
Chapter
4
Introduction to Ruby
Many people who are new to Rails are also new to Ruby. If you’re familiar with a language such as Java, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, or Python, you’ll find Ruby pretty easy to pick up.
This chapter isn’t a complete introduction to Ruby. It doesn’t cover topics such as precedence rules (as in most other programming languages, 1+2*3==7 in Ruby). It’s only meant to explain enough Ruby that the examples in the book make sense.
This chapter draws heavily from material in Programming Ruby [FH13]. If you think you need more background on the Ruby language (and at the risk of being grossly self-serving), we’d like to suggest that the best way to learn Ruby and the best reference for Ruby’s classes, modules, and libraries is Programming Ruby [FH13] (also known as the PickAxe book). Welcome to the Ruby community!