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# Ruby Introduction Ruby is a pure object-oriented programming language. It was created in 1993 by Yukihiro Matsumoto (まつもとゆきひろ) in Japan. You can find Yukihiro Matsumoto's name on the Ruby mailing list at www.ruby-lang.org. In the Ruby community, Matsumoto is also known as Matz. **Ruby is "a programmer's best friend."** Ruby's features are similar to those of Smalltalk, Perl, and Python. Perl, Python, and Smalltalk are scripting languages. Smalltalk is a true object-oriented language. Ruby, like Smalltalk, is a perfect object-oriented language. Using Ruby's syntax is much easier than using Smalltalk's syntax. ## Features of Ruby * Ruby is open-source and freely available on the Web, but requires a license. * Ruby is a general-purpose, interpreted programming language. * Ruby is a true object-oriented programming language. * Ruby is a server-side scripting language similar to Python and Perl. * Ruby can be used to write Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts. * Ruby can be embedded into Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). * Ruby has a simple syntax, allowing new developers to learn Ruby quickly and easily. * Ruby has a syntax similar to many programming languages like C++ and Perl. * Ruby is highly extensible, and large programs written in Ruby are easy to maintain. * Ruby can be used for developing Internet and Intranet applications. * Ruby can be installed on Windows and POSIX environments. * Ruby supports many GUI tools, such as Tcl/Tk, GTK, and OpenGL. * Ruby can easily connect to DB2, MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase. * Ruby has a rich set of built-in functions that can be used directly in Ruby scripts. ## Tools You Need To execute the examples discussed in this tutorial, you need a computer with an Intel Core i3 or i5 processor and at least 2GB of RAM (4GB recommended). You also need the following software: * Linux or Windows 95/98/2000/NT or Windows 7 operating system * Apache 1.3.19-5 Web server * Internet Explorer 5.0 or later Web browser * Ruby 1.8.5 This tutorial will introduce how to use Ruby to create GUI, network, and web applications. It will also discuss how to extend and embed Ruby applications. ## What You Will Learn Next? The next chapter will introduce where you can obtain Ruby and its documentation. Finally, it will guide you on how to install Ruby and configure the environment to prepare for developing Ruby applications.