* What's Ruby

Ruby is the interpreted scripting language for quick and
easy object-oriented programming.  It has many features to
process text files and to do system management tasks (as in
Perl).  It is simple, straight-forward, and extensible.

* Features of Ruby

  + Simple Syntax
  + *Normal* Object-Oriented features(ex. class, method calls)
  + *Advanced* Object-Oriented features(ex. Mix-in, Singleton-method)
  + Operator Overloading
  + Exception Handling
  + Iterators and Closures
  + Garbage Collection
  + Dynamic Loading of Object files(on some architecture)
  + Highly Portable(works on many UNIX machines, and on DOS,
    Windows, Mac, BeOS etc.)

* How to get Ruby

The Ruby distribution can be found on:

  ftp://ftp.netlab.co.jp/pub/lang/ruby/

You can get it by anonymous CVS.  How to check out is:

  $ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.ruby-lang.org:/src login
  (Logging in to anonymous@cvs.ruby-lang.org)
  CVS password: anonymous
  $ cvs -z4 -d :pserver:anonymous@cvs.ruby-lang.org:/src checkout ruby

* Mailing list

There is a mailing list to talk about Ruby.
To subscribe this list, please send the following phrase

	subscribe YourFirstName YourFamilyName
e.g.
        subscribe Joseph Smith

in the mail body (not subject) to the address <ruby-talk-ctl@ruby-lang.org>.

* How to compile and install

This is what you need to do to compile and install Ruby:

  1. If ./configure does not exist or is older than configure.in,
     run autoconf to (re)generate configure.

  2. Run ./configure, which will generate config.h and Makefile.

  3. Edit defines.h if you need.  Probably this step will not need.

  4. Remove comment mark(#) before the module names from ext/Setup (or
     add module names if not present), if you want to link modules
     statically.

     If you don't want to compile non static extension modules
     (probably on architectures which does not allow dynamic loading),
     remove comment mark from the line "#option nodynamic" in
     ext/Setup.

  5. Run make.

  6. Optionally, run 'make test' to check whether the compiled Ruby
     interpreter works well.  If you see the message "test succeeded",
     your ruby works as it should (hopefully).

  7. Run 'make install'

     You may have to be a super user to install ruby.

If you fail to compile ruby, please send the detailed error report with
the error log and machine/OS type, to help others.

* Copying

Ruby is copyrighted free software by Yukihiro Matsumoto <matz@zetabits.com>.
You can redistribute it and/or modify it under either the terms of the GPL
(see COPYING file), or the conditions below:

  1. You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form of the
     software without restriction, provided that you duplicate all of the
     original copyright notices and associated disclaimers.

  2. You may modify your copy of the software in any way, provided that
     you do at least ONE of the following:

       a) place your modifications in the Public Domain or otherwise
          make them Freely Available, such as by posting said
	  modifications to Usenet or an equivalent medium, or by allowing
	  the author to include your modifications in the software.

       b) use the modified software only within your corporation or
          organization.

       c) rename any non-standard executables so the names do not conflict
	  with standard executables, which must also be provided.

       d) make other distribution arrangements with the author.

  3. You may distribute the software in object code or executable
     form, provided that you do at least ONE of the following:

       a) distribute the executables and library files of the software,
	  together with instructions (in the manual page or equivalent)
	  on where to get the original distribution.

       b) accompany the distribution with the machine-readable source of
	  the software.

       c) give non-standard executables non-standard names, with
          instructions on where to get the original software distribution.

       d) make other distribution arrangements with the author.

  4. You may modify and include the part of the software into any other
     software (possibly commercial).  But some files in the distribution
     are not written by the author, so that they are not under this terms.

     They are gc.c(partly), utils.c(partly), regex.[ch], st.[ch] and some
     files under the ./missing directory.  See each file for the copying
     condition.

  5. The scripts and library files supplied as input to or produced as 
     output from the software do not automatically fall under the
     copyright of the software, but belong to whomever generated them, 
     and may be sold commercially, and may be aggregated with this
     software.

  6. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR
     IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED
     WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
     PURPOSE.

* Ruby home-page

The URL of the Ruby home-page is:

   http://www.ruby-lang.org/

* The Author

Feel free to send comments and bug reports to the author.  Here is the 
author's latest mail address:

  matz@zetabits.com

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created at: Thu Aug  3 11:57:36 JST 1995
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