Ruby Programming

Duration:	3 days
Type:	intermediate

Description

Ruby is a fully object oriented, dynamically typed scripting language. It has matured and expanded rapidly since its power was showcased by the 'Ruby on Rails' web framework. Today it is both the de facto replacement for the Perl scripting language and an increasingly important part of the Java and .NET platforms (via the JRuby and IronRuby interpreters).

This course provides experienced developers with everything they need to start using Ruby in production applications. The complete syntax of the language is covered, including detailed discussion of patterns, idioms and programming styles. Following this the course explores standard libraries and tools, and concludes with in-depth coverage of the JRuby interpreter and Java/Ruby integration.

Prerequisites

Delegates must be experienced software developers with a minimum of three years programming experience in languages such as Java, C#, Perl and Python.

List of Modules

Introduction to Ruby

A brief history of the Ruby language

Comparing Ruby to Perl and Python

The available Ruby interpreters

Scenarios where Ruby is best

Key Characteristics of Ruby

Everything is an object

Dynamically typed

Flexible syntax and DSL's

Lambdas and closures

Metaprogramming support

Basic Ruby Constructs

Types, literals and keywords

Block structure and operators

Conditionals and loop constructs

Working with strings and characters

The symbol table and symbol literals

Declaring and running regular expressions

The array and hash collection types

Basic Object Orientation

Classes, objects and references

Declaring classes with methods

Adding fields via constructors

Using attributes to define accessors

Visibilities supported by Ruby

Testing objects for equality

Converting between object types

Creating derived classes

Overriding inherited methods

Advanced Object Orientation

Using modules as namespaces and mixins

Declaring class level fields and methods

Creating class instance variables

Understanding singleton methods

Defining constant values in classes

Operator overloading and aliases

Using variable length argument lists

Raising and catching exceptions

Procs, Lambdas and Closures

Passing block arguments into methods

Creating and invoking procs and lambdas

Defining lambdas as literals in Ruby 1.9

How closures extend the lifetime of variables

Practical examples of using closures

Reflection and Metaprogramming in Ruby

Examining an object via introspection

Using Method objects to list and call methods

Handling unknown methods with method_missing

Dynamically adding methods via class_eval and define_method

Tracing type loading and program execution

Libraries Supplied with Ruby

Loading, reading and manipulating files

Creating multithreaded applications

Manipulating dates and times

Advanced Programming in Ruby

Applying functional programming styles in Ruby

Using Ruby to create Domain Specific Languages

Useful Ruby Tools

Listing, installing and updating RubyGems via the gem command

TDD usingTest::Unit, Mocha and RSpec

Integration testing Web Applications using Watir

Automating your build environment using Rake

Building web applications via 'Ruby On Rails'

The JRuby Implementation of Ruby

Why does the Java platform need Ruby?

Writing Ruby programs using JRuby

Invoking JRuby scripts from Java

Using and extending Java classes and interfaces

Converting between Ruby and Java types

Using Ruby and JRuby in Ant buildfiles

Building web applications via 'JRuby on Rails'