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uby 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. As an open source language, Ruby has been converted (or ported, as is the technical term) to run on many different computer platforms and architectures. This means that if you develop a Ruby program on one machine, it s likely you ll be able to run it without any changes on a different machine. You can use Ruby, in one form or another, on all the following operating systems and platforms: Microsoft Windows 95, 98, XP, and Vista (all varieties) Mac OS X (all varieties) Linux (all varieties) MS-DOS BSDs (including FreeBSD and OpenBSD) BeOS Acorn RISC OS OS/2 Amiga Symbian Series 60 cell phones Any platform for which a Java Virtual Machine exists (using JRuby, rather than the official Ruby interpreter)

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t s time to start hacking.1 In this chapter, you learn how to take control of your computer by speaking a language it understands: Python. Nothing here is particularly difficult, so if you know the basics of how your computer works, you should be able to follow the examples and try them out yourself. I ll go through the basics, starting with the excruciatingly simple, but because Python is such a powerful language, you ll soon be able to do pretty advanced things. First, I show you how to get the software you need. Then I tell you a bit about algorithms and their main components, expressions, and statements. Throughout these sections, there are numerous small examples (most of them using only simple arithmetic) that you can try out in the Python interactive interpreter (see the section The Interactive Interpreter, later in this chapter). You learn about variables, functions, and modules, and after handling these topics, I show you how to write and run larger programs. Finally, I deal with strings, an important aspect of almost any Python program.

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Caution Some specifics of Ruby vary between platforms, but much of the code in this book (particularly in the earlier chapters) runs on all versions. When we begin to look at more complex code, such as external libraries and interfacing between Ruby and other systems, you should be prepared to make changes in your code or accept that you won t have access to every feature. However, if you re using Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X on an x86 architecture, almost everything will work as described in this book.

Before you can start playing with Ruby, you need to get your computer to understand the Ruby language by installing an implementation of Ruby on your system, which I ll cover first.

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Typically, when you install Ruby onto your computer, you ll get the Ruby interpreter, the program that understands other programs written in the Ruby language, along with a wealth of extensions and libraries to make your Ruby more fully featured. However, some installers, such as the Windows installer covered in the following section, include source code editors and more easily accessible documentation, whereas other implementations might not. Fortunately, any extras included by one distribution and not another are always available separately to install later. To satisfy the majority of readers without referring to external documentation, I m providing full instructions for installing and using Ruby on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, along with links to Ruby implementations for other platforms. In each case, I provide instructions to check that the installation is successful before sending you on to the programming fun in 2.