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
      
      
13. Ruby Math Functions and Methods
    
    
14. Understanding Ruby Logical Operators
    
    
15. 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
      
      
16. Ruby Flow Control
    • The Ruby if Statement
    • Using else and elsif Constructs
    • The Ruby Ternary Operator
      
      
17. The Ruby case Statement
    • Number Ranges and the case statement
      
      
18. Ruby While and Until Loops
    • The Ruby While Loop
    • Breaking from While Loops
    • unless and until
      
      
19. Looping with for and the Ruby Looping Methods
    • The Ruby for Loop
    • The Ruby times Method
    • The Ruby upto Method
    • The Ruby downto Method
      
      
20. Ruby Strings - Creation and Basics
    • Creating Strings in Ruby
    • Quoting Ruby Strings
    • General Delimited Strings
    • Ruby Here Documents
    • Getting Information About String Objects
      
      
21. Ruby String Concatenation and Comparison
    • Concatenating Strings in Ruby
    • Freezing a Ruby String
    • Accessing String Elements
    • Comparing Ruby Strings
    • Case Insensitive String Comparisons
      
      
22. 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
      
      
23. Ruby String Conversions
    • Converting a Ruby String to an Array
    • Changing the Case of a Ruby String
    • Performing String Conversions
      
      
24. Ruby Directory Handling
    • Changing Directory in Ruby
    • Creating New Directories
    • Directory Listings in Ruby
      
      
25. Working with Files in Ruby
    • [[Working with Files in Ruby]|Creating a New File with Ruby]]
    • [[Working with Files in Ruby]|Opening Existing Files]]
    • [[Working with Files in Ruby]|Renaming and Deleting Files in Ruby]]
    • [[Working with Files in Ruby]|Getting Information About Files]]
    • [[Working with Files in Ruby]|Reading and Writing Files]]