Chapter 1. Booting Ruby
introduction
an overview of ruby
installing ruby and its tools
installing ruby on unix
installing ruby from source code
installing from packages
installing ruby on a windows system
installing applications and libraries from RAA
IDE and editor support in ruby
emacs
vim
other editors
rubywin
ruby development environment (RDE)
additional tools a rubyist must have
ruby interactive (Ri)
interactive ruby (IRb)
debugging ruby applications with debug.rb
a short syntax style guide
using comments
naming
iterators
indentation, spacing, parentheses
dangerous ruby
local variables versus methods
more whitespace issues
block local variables
comparing ruby
java
perl
language constructs
object-oriented programming
access control
arrays and hashes
hashes
iterators
convincing management to use ruby
summary
solutions fast track
frequently asked questions
Chapter 2. GUI Toolkits for Ruby
introduction
using this book’s sample applications
using the standard ruby GUI: Tk
obtaining Tk
ruby/Tk basics
creating responses to Tk’s callbacks and events
working with ruby/Tk’s layout managers
ruby/Tk sample application
using the SpecTcl GUI builder
obtaining Tk extensions: Tix and BLT
using the GTK+ toolkit
obtaining ruby/GTK
ruby/GTK basics
programming signals and signal handlers
working with ruby/GTK’s layout managers
ruby/GTK sample application
using the Glade GUI builder
using the FOX toolkit
obtaining FOX and FXRuby
FXRuby basics
targets and messages
working with FOX’s layout managers
fox sample application
using the SWin/VRuby extensions
obtaining SWin and VRuby
VRuby library basics
layout managers
event handling
VRuby sample application
other GUI toolkits
choosing a GUI toolkit
summary
solutions fast track
frequently asked questions
Chapter 3. Accessing Databases with Ruby
introduction
accessing databases with ruby/DBI
obtaining and installing ruby/DBI
programming with ruby/DBI
understanding ruby/DBI architecture and terminology
connecting to databases
using driver URLs and datasource names
preparing and executing SQL statements
fetching the result
performing transactions
handling errors
tracing the execution of DBI applications
accessing metadata
using driver-specific functions and attributes
accessing databases remotely using DBD::Proxy
copying table data between different databases
getting binary objects out of a database
transforming SQL-query results to XML
accessing databases with ruby/ODBC
accessing LDAP directories with ruby/LDAP
using ruby/LDAP
adding an LDAP entry
modifying an LDAP entry
deleting an LDAP entry
modifying the distinguished name
performing a search
handling errors
utilizing other storage solutions
reading and writing comma-separated value files
using Berkeley DBM-file databases
using the Berkeley DB interface BDB
storing ruby objects in a relational database
summary
solutions fast track
frequently asked questions
Chapter 4. XML and Ruby
introduction
why XML?
making XML manageable
validation though DTD
validating with XML-schemas
XPath
XML parser architectures and APIs
parsing and creating XML in ruby
shared code for examples
defining and implementing classes Host and Port
defining and implementing the Report class
using XMLParser
installing XMLParser on unix
using NQXML
installing NQXML
using REXML
using XSLT in ruby
ruby-Sablotron
XSLT4R
summary
solutions fast track
frequently asked questions
Chapter 5. Web Services and Distributed Ruby
introduction
using XML-RPC for ruby
obtaining and installing xmlrpc4r
configuring xmlrpc4r
writing XML-RPC clients
using the MultiCall extension
introspecting XML-RPC servers
writing XML-RPC servers
project: a file upload service
XML-RPC datatypes
user-defined datatypes
dumping and loading XML-RPC messages
communicating with Python’s xmlrpclib
securing XML-RPC services
client-side support
server-side support
performance comparisons
using SOAP for ruby
obtaining and installing SOAP4R
writing SOAP4R client and server applications
choosing an XML parser
writing SOAP4R clients
writing SOAP4R services
SOAP datatypes and type-conversion
creating multi-dimensional or typed SOAP arrays
creating user-defined datatypes
changing the default type-mapping
using SOAP as marshalling format
project: a SOAP authentication server
using distributed ruby
a name server for DRb
using DRb to speed up CGI scripts
using Rinda and distributed tuplespaces
load-balancing
security considerations
summary
solutions fast track
frequently asked questions
Chapter 6. WWW and Networking with Ruby
introduction
connecting to the web with ruby
low-level functions: the socket class
high-level functions: the Net class
POP/SMTP
HTTP
FTP
Telnet
writing a server in ruby
models of server architectures
basic web servers using ruby
using ruby on the web
generating HTML with ruby
ruby HTML code generation
ruby CGI HTML generation
scripting with ruby using eruby and ERb
templating with ruby
using the HTML/Template extension
using ruby-tmpl
putting it all together
implementing an online shopping application
designing the data model
the database access layer
initializing the database
developing the web interface
improving the online shop
using mod_ruby and eruby
installing and configuring mod_ruby
using mod_ruby and eruby in the online shop example
dynamically generating XML with eruby
displaying RSS news channels
installing and configuring IOWA
using IOWA for the online shop example
implementing a TreeView component
summary
solutions fast track
frequently asked questions
Chapter 7. Miscellaneous Libraries and Tools
introduction
graphics programming in ruby
using OpenGL in ruby
defining the goal and the strategy
starting with a sample program
creating multiple curves
generating diagrams with GD::Graph
mathematical programming in ruby
using the NArray library
using the BigFloat library
using the Polynomial library
using the Algebra extension
working with polynomials
working with matrices
exploring C/S data-structure tools
using the BinaryTree extension
using the BitVector extension
using random numbers, genetic algorithms, and neural nets
working with a random-number generator
genetic programming in ruby
neural nets
working with ruby and windows
using ActiveScript in ruby
using WinOLE in ruby
using OOP-related tools
using the EachDelegator library
using the Preserved, Forwardable, and Finalize modules
using text-processing, date, and calendar tools
using the Soundex extension
using the Date2 and Date3 extensions
using the Calendar extension
using language bindings
using JRuby
ruby calling Java
Java calling ruby
using the Ruby/Python extension
summary
solutions fast track
frequently asked questions
Chapter 8. Profiling and Performance Tuning
introduction
analyzing the complexity of algorithms
comparing algorithms
the different “ordos”
average and worst-case complexity
improving performance by profiling
profiling using profile.rb
how the standard profiler works
drawbacks with the standard profiler
profiling using RbProf in AspectR
understanding AOP and AspectR
using AspectR
how AspectR works
comparing AspectR and AspectJ
comparing the speed of ruby constructs
adding elements to arrays
concatenating strings
predeclaring variables
iterating over array elements
iterating over array elements with an index
destructive versus non-destructive methods
accessing the first array element
creating arrays and hashes
calling methods and Proc objects
further performance enhancements
caching results
when not to use result caching
how Memoize works
disabling the garbage collector
writing a C extension
summary
solutions fast track
frequently asked questions
Chapter 9. Parser Generators
introduction
creating the parsing library of your dreams
why not use regexps?
representing recovered structures with abstract syntax trees
parsing in ruby with Rockit
deviations from parsing library of our dreams
using Rockit as a parser generator
case-insensitive parsing
customizing your parser
parser generators
parser combinators
parser transformers
error-related building blocks
parsing in ruby with Racc
writing the grammar rules
writing a lexical analyzer for use with Racc
invoking the Racc command line tool
building abstract syntax trees with Racc-generated parsers
comparing Racc and Rockit
summary
solutions fast track
frequently asked questions
Chapter 10. Extending and Embedding Ruby
introduction
writing C/C++ extensions
working with datatype conversions
working with objects
working with numbers
working with strings
working with arrays
working with hashes
working with C/C++ data wrappers
implementing methods
an example: K-D trees
ruby implementation of the K-D tree
compiling the C implementation of the K-D tree
comparing the results
using SWIG
a simple SWIG example in