There are a lot of programming languages out there. You’ve probably heard of many of them. C, C#, Lisp, Java, Smalltalk, PHP, and Python are popular choices. And then there are others you’ve probably never heard of: Haskel, IO, and maybe even Ruby. Like the others, Ruby is a programming language. You use it to write computer programs,

including, but certainly not limited to, web applications.

Before Rails came along, not many people were writing web applications with Ruby. Other languages like PHP and ASP were the dominant players in the field, and a large part of the web is powered by them. The fact that Rails uses Ruby is significant because Ruby is considerably more powerful that either PHP or ASP in terms of its abilities as a

programming language. This is largely another symptom of the web’s maturity. Now that it’s attracting a larger audience, more powerful languages and tools are falling into the fold.

Invented by Yukihiro Matsumoto in 1994, it’s a wonder Ruby remained shrouded in obscurity for as long as it did. As far as programming languages go, Ruby is among the most beautiful. Interpreted and object-oriented, elegant and expressive, Ruby is truly a joy to work with. A large part of Rail’s grace owes to Ruby and to the culture and aesthetics

that permeate the Ruby community. As you begin to work with the framework, you’ll quickly learn that Ruby, like Rails, is rich with idioms and conventions, all of which make for an enjoyable, productive programming environment.

In summary, Ruby can be described as follows:

• An interpreted, object-oriented scripting language

• Elegant, concise syntax

• Powerful metaprogramming features

• Well suited as a host language for creating DSLs