The Book of Ruby
As you are now reading a book on Ruby, I think it is safe to work on the assump-tion that you don’t need me to persuade you of the merits of the Ruby language. Instead I’ll take the somewhat unconventional step of starting with a warning: many people are attracted to Ruby by its simple syntax and its ease of use. They are wrong. Ruby’s syntax may look simple at first sight but, the more you get to know the language the more you will realize that it is, on the contrary, extremely complex. The plain fact of the matter is that Ruby has a number of pitfalls just waiting for unwary programmers to drop into. In this book it is my aim to guide you safely over the pitfalls and lead you through the choppy waters of Ruby’s syntax and class libraries. In the process, I’ll be exploring both the smooth, well-paved highways and the gnarlier, bumpy little byways of Ruby. By the end of the journey, you should be able to use Ruby safely and effectively without getting caught out by any unexpected hazards along the way. The Book Of Ruby concentrates principally on version 1.8.x of the Ruby lan-guage. While a version 1.9 of Ruby has been released, Ruby 1.8 is still far more widely used. Ruby 1.9 may be regarded as a stepping stone towards Ruby 2.0. In most respects the syntax of Ruby 1.9 is close to that of Ruby 1.8 but you should be aware that there are some differences and complete compatibility is not guaranteed.
