CHAPTER Introduction to Ruby INFORMATION IN THIS CHAPTER: · Where Ruby Is Useful · Ruby Basics · Building Classes with Ruby · File Manipulation · Database Basics · Network Operations · Putting It All Together 4 Ruby is an object-oriented scripting language with syntax that is similar to Python's. It is a newer language, publicly released in 1995 but not growing in popularity until the mid-2000s. Ruby combines concepts from languages such as Perl, Ada, and Lisp, resulting in a language that has a short learning curve for people who already know other popular scripting languages. It is flexible enough to allow artistic