* 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)

* How to get ruby

** by ftp

The ruby distribution can be found on

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

* How to compile and install

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

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

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

  3. Remove comment mark(#) before the module names from ext/Setup, if 
     you want to link modules statically.

     If you want to link all the extension modules, remove comment
     mark from the line "#option nodynamic".

  4. Run make.

  5. Optionally, run 'make test' to check that the compiled ruby
     interpreter works well.  If you see the message "test succeeded", 
     your ruby works as it should.

  6. Run 'make install'

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 by Yukihiro Matsumoto <[email protected]>.

This source is distributed under the conditions blow:

 1. You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form of
    the software without restriction, provided that you do not modify
    the original distribution files.

    If you want to distribute the modified version in any way, contact 
    the author.

  2. You may distribute the software in object code or executable
     form, provided that you distribute it with instructions on where
     to get the software.

  3. You may modify the software in any way, provided that you do not
     distribute the modified version.

  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]¡¤fnmatch.[ch]¡¤
     glob.c, st.[ch] and somme files under the ./missing directory.  See
     each files 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 MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
     PURPOSE.

* ruby home-page

 The URL of the ruby home-page is:

   http://www.netlab.co.jp/ruby/

* The Author

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

  [email protected]

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