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Ruby is a popular programming language, but not many computers understand it by default. This chapter takes you through the steps necessary to get Ruby working on your computer.

Programming is both a science and an art. Telling computers what to do with computer programs requires being able to think as both a scientist and an artist. Being an artist is essential for coming up with big ideas and being flexible enough to take unique approaches. Being a scientist is essential to understanding how and why certain methodologies need to be taken into account, and to approach testing and debugging from a logical perspective, rather than an emotional one.

Computer programs spend nearly all their time manipulating data. We type in words, phrases, and numbers; listen to music; and watch videos, while the computer performs calculations, makes decisions, and relays information to us. To write computer programs, it’s essential to understand the basics of data and how to manipulate it. Naturally, Ruby keeps it simple.

Up to this point we’ve focused on covering the basics of the Ruby language and looking at how it works at the ground level. In this chapter we’ll move into the world of real software development and develop a full, though basic, Ruby application with a basic set of features. Once we’ve developed and tested the basic application, we’ll look at different ways to extend it to become more useful. On our way we’ll cover some new facets of development that haven’t been mentioned so far in this book.

As with almost all other programming languages, Ruby has its own culture and “eco system.” Ruby’s ecosystem is made up of many thousands of developers, maintainers, documenters, bloggers, and those who help sponsor or fund the development and use of the language.

In Chapter 2 we dove straight into the principles of object orientation, the method of representing concepts in Ruby by using and . Since then we’ve looked at Ruby’s standard classes, such as String and Array; worked with them; and then branched off to look at Ruby’s logic and other core features.

In previous chapters we’ve looked at and worked with Ruby from a low-level perspective by working directly with classes, objects, and functions. Each line of code we’ve used in the small projects so far has been written specifically for that project from scratch. In this chapter, we’ll look at how to build larger projects with Ruby, and how to reuse code written previously. Finally, we’ll look at how to use code already written and prepared by other developers within your own applications, so that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you create a new program.

In this chapter we’re going to look at the finer details of developing reliable programs: documentation, error handling, debugging, and testing. These tasks aren’t what most people think of as development, but are as important to the overall process as general coding tasks. Without documenting, debugging, and testing your code, it’s unlikely that anyone but you could work on the code with much success, and you run the risk of releasing faulty scripts and applications.

In this chapter we’re going to look at how to store, process, and interact with external sources of data from our Ruby programs. In Chapter 4 we briefly looked at how to load files to get data into an application, but this chapter will extend upon that greatly and allow you to create files from scratch from your Ruby programs.

In this chapter we’re going to look at how to deploy and distribute the programs you create with Ruby.