This Ruby workshop is run by well known Ruby expert David Black and comprises of 4 days intensive learning. You will learn the basics of the Ruby programming language, and then extend your knowledge to the Ruby object model, built-in classes, string and text handling, sockets and network programming, code testing, metaprogramming, and many more subtopics.

The workshop is completed with one further day of learning, where we will have a 'deep dive' into various Ruby tools! Upon completion of this bootcamp, you will understand that Ruby is a mature general-purpose, programming language, why it has gained tremendous world-wide popularity in recent years. You will know how to use Ruby for a wide variety of programming tasks, including its features, its elegant syntax and full object orientation.

Delegates will also receive a copy of The Well-Grounded Rubyist during the course.

Basic Ruby concepts and features

• "Everything's an object"
• Local variables and assignment
• Top-level method definitions
• Arithmetic and logical operators
• Global variables
• The default object (self)

Object orientation in Ruby

• Messages and methods
• Ruby's class model
• Inheritance
• The object method lookup-path

Classes and modules

• Class methods
• Constants
• Module "mix-ins" in classes
• Modules as namespaces
• Instance method definition syntax
• Reopening class and module definitions
• Overriding methods

Instances and attributes

• Instance variables
• Attribute setter and getter techniques
• Ruby and the "Equal Access Principle"

Strings, symbols, and regular expressions

• Basic string manipulation and indexing
• Symbols and the symbol table
• Regular expression syntax
• Pattern-matching with scan, sub, and match

Collection objects and iterators

• Array, Hash, and Range classes
• Code blocks and iteration
• Creating iterators with the Enumerable module
• Collection filtering, selecting, and transforming
• Enumerators and external iteration

Object dynamism

• Adding singleton methods to objects
• Modular extension of per-object behavior
• Singleton classes
• Extending existing classes

Threads

• Starting, running, stopping threads
• Threads and variable scope
• Thread-safety considerations

Lambdas and function objects

• Creating first-class functions
• Lambda argument semantics
• Variable scope and closures
• Block, Proc, lambda interaction

Metaprogramming

• The eval family of methods
• Programmatic method creation
• Runtime reflection on objects
• Traversing ObjectSpace
• method_missing and other hooks and callbacks

Exception handling

• The Exception class hierarchy
• Raising exceptions
• Rescue and ensure clauses
• Writing your own exception classes

File and I/O operations

• Keyboard input and screen output
• Basic file reading and writing
• File handles as iterators
• Low-level I/O techniques

Date, time, and numeric types

• Date, Time, and DateTime classes
• Date calculation and parsing
• Integers and floating-point numbers

The standard library

• StringIO hybrid objects
• Struct and OpenStruct
• Math extensions
• FileUtils and Pathname
• Socket and network programming facilities
• Administrative and system libraries

Testing in Ruby

• Unit testing principles
• The MiniTest and TestUnit libraries

Ruby tools

• Interactive Ruby (irb)
• Embedded Ruby (erb)
• The RubyGems packaging system
• Rake task management utility