This new book is a guided tour of one of the fastest-growing languages out there. It walks readers through the basic structures of the Ruby language, explaining how all the pieces fit together and demonstrating their use with practical examples, including working with Rails. As the popularity of Rails grows, more and more people are exposed to Ruby, creating a strong market for an introductory title. This book comprehensively explains the foundations of Ruby, emphasizing features that make it different from other languages, plus self-contained examples give readers ready- made code from common situations