I know nothing about Ruby.

[Arcrammer]

Someone please explain Ruby to me. I've already used tryruby.org and I really like it. I'm fifteen years old and I am going to be a Web Designer and Developer. I can code HTML and CSS almost professional and I can code PHP fairly well. I want to learn Ruby but it just doesn't make any sense! Where do I go to code it? Is it a program that I download and execute lines of code like a command prompt? Please tell me how you use Ruby code and where you put it. Tell me how it's better than PHP too because I love PHP!

[Arcrammer]

Okay I'll just be waiting...

[Arcrammer]

I'll just wait here... For someone to reply... To my thread...

[L7Sqr]

Ruby is a scripting language. It requires an interpreter - either command-line or embedded. It has a syntax that you must abide - though it is looser than many other languages.
It is not all that different from PHP except that Ruby doesn't focus [almost] exclusively on the web as PHP does. It is used more as a general purpose programming language for GUIs, networking code, scripting, and a multitude of other things.

Let me ask you this: Why Ruby? What drove you to it? Without focus understanding what Ruby is will be of no use to you.

If you are interested in the web-related community associated with Ruby I'd suggest you start to learn about Ruby on Rails (or just Rails, for short). Rails is a framework built (using Ruby) around supporting web-based development.

[maninaction]

Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language which combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like the features.

Ruby supports multiple programming paradigms, including functional, object oriented, imperative and reflective. It also has a dynamic type of system and automatic memory management; it is therefore similar in varying respects to Smalltalk, Python, Perl, Lisp, Dylan, Pike, and CLU.

[cwarn23]

Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language which combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like the features.

Ruby supports multiple programming paradigms, including functional, object oriented, imperative and reflective. It also has a dynamic type of system and automatic memory management; it is therefore similar in varying respects to Smalltalk, Python, Perl, Lisp, Dylan, Pike, and CLU.

So I take it that Ruby isn't the language that those in Rugby spoke. To me the name sounds like if a bunch of Rugby players decided to put their Rugby language into a computer and then you got yourself a powerful programming language. ;)