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- Core Tech
Ruby
Ruby is a dynamic, open-source programming language known for its simplicity, elegance, and focus on developer happiness. Created by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto in 1995, it is designed to be intuitive and readable, mimicking natural language while offering high productivity.
Ruby is inherently object-oriented, treating everything as an object, which facilitates a uniform and understandable codebase. It supports dynamic typing and employs "duck typing" for more flexible coding patterns.
A notable aspect of Ruby is its principle of "Convention over Configuration," streamlining development processes, especially within the Ruby on Rails framework. The language also introduces powerful features such as blocks, procs, and lambdas for handling anonymous functions, alongside mixins for code reusability without the complexities of multiple inheritances.
With automatic garbage collection and tools like IRB for interactive programming, Ruby simplifies memory management and testing. Embraced for its broad library, versatile features, and a community embodying kindness, Ruby remains a popular choice for web applications, scripting, and automation tasks.
Content in this path
Entry-Level
Practitioner
This section covers practitioner content.
- **Ruby Basics**:
- **Syntax**: Ruby's syntax and how it differs from other languages.
- **Data Types**: Ruby's data types, including numbers, strings, booleans, arrays, and hashes.
- **Variables and Constants**: How to declare and use variables and constants.
- **Control Structures**:
- **Conditional Statements**: if, else, unless, and case expressions.
- **Loops**: while, until, for, and iterators like each and map.
- **Methods and Blocks**:
- **Defining and Invoking Methods**: How to define your own methods and understand method parameters and return values.
- **Blocks**: How to use blocks with methods like .each and .map, and grasp block syntax.
- **Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)**:
- **Classes and Objects**: Concept of classes and instances (objects).
- **Instance Variables and Methods**: How objects hold data and behavior.
- **Inheritance**: How classes can inherit behavior from other classes.
- **Mixins and Modules**: Use of modules for organizing code and mixins for shared behavior.
- **Error Handling**: Handle errors gracefully using begin, rescue, and ensure blocks.
- **File and Input/Output Operations**: Understand how to read from and write to files, and perform other I/O operations.
- **Gem Management**: Learn about Ruby's package manager and how to manage project dependencies.
- **Testing in Ruby**: Testing frameworks such as RSpec or Minitest, and understand the importance of testing your code.
- **Debugging**: Techniques and tools for debugging Ruby code to identify and fix issues.
- No previous programming experience is strictly necessary to start learning Ruby. However, a few foundational skills and areas of knowledge will help:
- **Basic Programming Concepts**: Understanding fundamental programming concepts such as variables, control flow (if statements, loops), methods/functions, and data structures (arrays, hashes) can be very beneficial. While you can learn these concepts while studying Ruby, having a grasp on them beforehand will make the journey smoother.
- **Basic Computer Skills**: Fundamental computer operation skills, including using a text editor, managing files and directories, and familiarity with the command line or terminal, are essential. These skills are crucial for setting up Ruby on your system, managing your code files, and executing Ruby scripts.
- **Text Editor Familiarity**: While you can write Ruby code in a basic text editor, using one that supports code highlighting and other development features (such as Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, Vim or Emacs) can make coding more accessible and enjoyable.
- Python
- Ruby on Rails
- RSpec
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