Ruby Programming Training

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

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
• 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 using Test::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 build files
• Building web applications via ‘JRuby on Rails’