Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

414 Rubya file, as with many scripting languages, Ruby can also beused interactively to test statements:% ruby eval.rbruby> puts “Hello, world.”Hello, world.nilruby> exitHere the Ruby interpreter is told to run eval.rb, a specialprogram that interactively evaluates statements and expressions.The puts command puts (outputs) the string Hello,world. The evaluator then reports that the puts methodreturned no value (nil).Although Ruby is traditionally an interpreted language,a version that will produce byte code for a virtual machine(similar to Java) is in development, and a more direct compileris certainly possible.Ruby on RailsThe most popular programming environment for Rubyis Ruby on Rails, an open-source application frameworkaimed particularly at writing programs that connect Websites to databases. The framework is based on the modelviewcontroller approach (separating data access and logicfrom the user interface) and includes “scaffolding” that canbe quickly filled in to provide data-driven Web sites withbasic functionality. Developers can also create plug-ins toextend the built-in packages.Further ReadingBaird, Kevin. Ruby by Example: Concepts and Code. San Francisco:No Starch Press, 2007.Burd, Barry. Ruby on Rails for Dummies. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley,2007.Cooper, Peter. Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional. Berkeley,Calif.: Apress, 2007.“Ruby: A Programmer’s Best Friend.” Available online. URL: http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/. Accessed November 13, 2007.Slagell, Mark. “Ruby User’s Guide.” Available online. URL: http://www.mentalpointer.com/ruby/index.html. Accessed November13, 2007.Stewart, Bruce. “An Interview with the Creator of Ruby.” O’ReillyLinux devcenter, November 29, 2001. Available online. URL:http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2001/11/29/ruby.html. Accessed November 13, 2007.Thomas, Dave. Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer’sGuide. 2nd ed. Raleigh, N.C.: Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2004.