Ruby is one of the most important programming languages in use for web development. It powers the Rails framework, which is the backing of some of the most important sites on the web. The Pickaxe Book, named for the tool on the cover, is the definitive reference on Ruby, a highly-regarded, fully object-oriented programming language. This updated edition is a comprehensive reference on the language itself, with a tutorial on the most important features of Ruby - including pattern matching and Ractors - and describes the language through Ruby 3.2.

Would you like to go from first idea to working code much, much faster? Do you currently spend more time satisfying the compiler instead of your clients or end users? Are you frustrated with demanding languages that seem to get in your way instead of helping you get the work done? Are you using Rails and want to dig deeper into the underlying Ruby language? If so, then we've got a language and book for you!

Ruby is a fully object-oriented language. The combination of the power of a pure object-oriented language with the convenience of a scripting language makes Ruby a favorite tool of programmers that want to get things done quickly and cleanly.

This comprehensive reference manual for Ruby includes a description of the most important standard library modules, built-in classes, and modules. It also includes all the new and changed syntax and semantics introduced through Ruby 3.2, including pattern matching and Ractors, and describes the language through Ruby 3.2.

What You Need:

This book assumes you have a basic understanding of object-oriented programming.
In general, Ruby programmers tend to favor the the command line for running their code, and they tend to use text editors rather than IDEs.
Ruby runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS.