Ruby Essentials

The Ruby Essentials book is currently under development and is scheduled for completion at the end of November 2007.

1. What is Ruby?
   • The History of Ruby
   • What is Ruby?
   • Why is Ruby so Popular?
2. Getting and Installing Ruby
   • Installing Ruby on Linux
   • Ruby on Red Hat Enterprise and Fedora Linux
   • Ruby on Ubuntu and Debian Linux
   • Ruby on Microsoft Windows
3. Simple Ruby Examples
   • The Most Basic Ruby Example
   • Executing Ruby from the Command Line
   • Interactive Ruby Execution
   • Executing Ruby from a File
   • Creating a Self Contained Ruby Executable on Linux or UNIX
   • Associating Ruby Files on Windows
4. Commenting Ruby Code
   • What is Exactly is Commenting
   • Single Line Ruby Comments
   • Comments on Lines of Code
   • Multi Line or Block Ruby Comments
5. Understanding Ruby Variables
   • Ruby Constants
   • Ruby and Variable Dynamic Typing
   • Declaring a Variable
   • Identifying a Ruby Variable Type
   • Changing Variable Type
   • Converting Variable Values
6. Ruby Variable Scope
   • What is Variable Scope?
   • Detecting the Scope of a Ruby Variable
   • Ruby Local Variables
   • Ruby Global Variables
   • Ruby Class Variables
   • Ruby Instance Variables
   • Ruby Constant Scope
7. Ruby Number Classes and Conversions
   • Ruby Number Classes
   • Converting Numbers in Ruby
8. Ruby Ranges
   • Ruby Sequence Ranges
   • Using Range Methods
   • Ruby Ranges as Conditional Expressions
   • Ruby Range Intervals
   • Ranges in case Statements
9. Understanding Ruby Arrays
   • What is a Ruby Array
   • How to Create a Ruby Array
   • Populating an Array with Data
   • Finding Out Information About a Ruby Array
   • Accessing Array Elements
   • Finding the Index of an Element
10. Advanced Ruby Arrays
    • Combining Ruby Arrays
    • Intersection, Union and Difference
    • Identifying Unique Array Elements
    • Pushing and Popping Array Elements
    • Ruby Array Comparisons
    • Modifying Arrays
    • Deleting Array Elements
    • Sorting Arrays
11. Ruby Operators
    • The Anatomy of a Ruby Operation
    • Performing Ruby Arithmetic using Operators
    • Ruby Assignment Operators
    • Parallel Assignment
    • Ruby Comparison Operators
    • Ruby Bitwise Operators
12. Ruby Operator Precedence
    • An Example of Ruby Operator Precedence

• Ruby Math Functions and Methods

1. Understanding Ruby Logical Operators
2. Ruby Object Oriented Programming
   • What is an Object?
   • What is a Class?
   • Defining a Ruby Class
   • Creating an Object from a Class
   • Instance Variables and Accessor Methods
   • Ruby Class Variables
   • Instance Methods
   • Ruby Class Inheritance
3. Ruby Flow Control
   • The Ruby if Statement
   • Using else and elsif Constructs
   • The Ruby Ternary Operator
4. The Ruby case Statement
   • Number Ranges and the case statement
5. Ruby While and Until Loops
   • The Ruby While Loop
   • Breaking from While Loops
   • unless and until
6. Looping with for and the Ruby Looping Methods
   • The Ruby for Loop
   • The Ruby times Method
   • The Ruby upto Method
   • The Ruby downto Method
7. Ruby Strings - Creation and Basics
   • Creating Strings in Ruby
   • Quoting Ruby Strings
   • General Delimited Strings
   • Ruby Here Documents
   • Getting Information About String Objects
8. Ruby String Concatenation and Comparison
   • Concatenating Strings in Ruby
   • Freezing a Ruby String
   • Accessing String Elements
   • Comparing Ruby Strings
   • Case Insensitive String Comparisons
9. Ruby String Replacement, Substitution and Insertion
   • Changing a Section of a String
   • Ruby String Substitution
   • Repeating Ruby Strings
   • Inserting Text Into a Ruby String
   • Ruby chomp and chop Methods
   • Reversing the Characters in a String
10. Ruby String Conversions
    • Converting a Ruby String to an Array
    • Changing the Case of a Ruby String
    • Performing String Conversions
11. Ruby File and Directory Handling