1: * What's Ruby
    2: 
    3: Ruby is the interpreted scripting language for quick and
    4: easy object-oriented programming.  It has many features to
    5: process text files and to do system management tasks (as in
    6: Perl).  It is simple, straight-forward, and extensible.
    7: 
    8: 
    9: * Features of Ruby
   10: 
   11:   + Simple Syntax
   12:   + *Normal* Object-Oriented features(ex. class, method calls)
   13:   + *Advanced* Object-Oriented features(ex. Mix-in, Singleton-method)
   14:   + Operator Overloading
   15:   + Exception Handling
   16:   + Iterators and Closures
   17:   + Garbage Collection
   18:   + Dynamic Loading of Object files(on some architecture)
   19:   + Highly Portable(works on many UNIX machines, and on DOS,
   20:     Windows, Mac, BeOS etc.)
   21: 
   22: 
   23: * How to get Ruby
   24: 
   25: The Ruby distribution files can be found in the following FTP site:
   26: 
   27:   ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/
   28: 
   29: The latest source code of this version series can be checked out
   30: through SVN with the following command:
   31: 
   32:   $ svn co http://svn.ruby-lang.org/repos/ruby/branches/ruby_1_8_6/
   33: 
   34: The trunk of the Ruby source tree can be checked out with the
   35: following command:
   36: 
   37:   $ svn co http://svn.ruby-lang.org/repos/ruby/trunk/ ruby
   38: 
   39: There are some other branches under development.  Try the following
   40: command and see the list of branches:
   41: 
   42:   $ svn ls http://svn.ruby-lang.org/repos/ruby/branches/
   43: 
   44: 
   45: * Ruby home-page
   46: 
   47: The URL of the Ruby home-page is:
   48: 
   49:    http://www.ruby-lang.org/
   50: 
   51: 
   52: * Mailing list
   53: 
   54: There is a mailing list to talk about Ruby.
   55: To subscribe this list, please send the following phrase
   56: 
   57:         subscribe YourFirstName YourFamilyName
   58: e.g.
   59:         subscribe Joseph Smith
   60: 
   61: in the mail body (not subject) to the address <ruby-talk-ctl@ruby-lang.org>.
   62: 
   63: 
   64: * How to compile and install
   65: 
   66: This is what you need to do to compile and install Ruby:
   67: 
   68:   1. If ./configure does not exist or is older than configure.in,
   69:      run autoconf to (re)generate configure.
   70: 
   71:   2. Run ./configure, which will generate config.h and Makefile.
   72: 
   73:   3. Edit defines.h if you need.  Usually this step will not be needed.
   74: 
   75:   4. Remove comment mark(#) before the module names from ext/Setup (or
   76:      add module names if not present), if you want to link modules
   77:      statically.
   78: 
   79:      If you don't want to compile non static extension modules
   80:      (probably on architectures which does not allow dynamic loading),
   81:      remove comment mark from the line "#option nodynamic" in
   82:      ext/Setup.
   83: 
   84:   5. Run make.
   85: 
   86:   6. Optionally, run 'make test' to check whether the compiled Ruby
   87:      interpreter works well.  If you see the message "test succeeded",
   88:      your ruby works as it should (hopefully).
   89: 
   90:   7. Run 'make install'
   91: 
   92:      You may have to be a super user to install ruby.
   93: 
   94: If you fail to compile ruby, please send the detailed error report with
   95: the error log and machine/OS type, to help others.
   96: 
   97: 
   98: * Copying
   99: 
  100: See the file COPYING.
  101: 
  102: 
  103: * The Author
  104: 
  105: Feel free to send comments and bug reports to the author.  Here is the 
  106: author's latest mail address:
  107: 
  108:   matz@netlab.jp
  109: 
  110: -------------------------------------------------------
  111: created at: Thu Aug  3 11:57:36 JST 1995
  112: Local variables:
  113: mode: indented-text
  114: end: