Chapter 1. Ruby Basics

Perhaps like you, I've learned to program in a number of languages over the years—BASIC, FORTRAN, C, C++, C#, Java, and JavaScript among others—but so far Ruby is my favorite. It has been the most fun to learn and use. Why? Because of its syntax. If you have a background in a variety of other languages, Ruby is easy to figure out. And it's flexible: Ruby lets you do things in a variety of ways, not just one way, so you can decide how to do things your way.

Ruby is an interpreted rather than a compiled language. You can call it a scripting language, an object-oriented language, a refreshing language. It's not a perfect language. It doesn't have to be. It's still my favorite. It has that certain je ne sais quoi. If it didn't, why would I spend hundreds of hours writing a book about it? Certainly not for money and fame.