Class 02: Ruby (1)

Held: Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Summary: We begin our exploration of the Ruby programming language.

Related Pages:

• EBoard.
• Lab: Ruby (1).
• Reading: Tate 2.1-2.2.

Notes:

• I'm still negotiating how to deal with the reading questions. Generally, I'll read them all to think about what to discuss, but won't cover everything.
• Disclaimer: I am not an expert in any of the languages we are discussing. I certainly don't know about the underlying implementation details (although I can hypothesize a bit).
• If you really care about how something is implemented, you could make it the topic for your presentation.
• Reading for Thursday: Tate 2.3.
• EC for Microsoft Presentation, Thursday, 4:15 @ CDO.
• EC for Waiting for Superman, Thursday, 7:00 @ Harris Cinema.

Overview:

• Ruby Basics.
• Typing.
• Lab.

Ruby Basics

• What commands and such did you learn?

Typing

• Typing terms are often used casually.
• Static typing: Type checking done at compile time.
• Dynamic typing: Type checking done at run time.
• Strong typing: System does careful checks to see if an operation or function call is type safe. Typically only associated with static typing.
• Weak typing: System is more casual about type checking.
• Duck typing; Typically a form of dynamic typing: At the time we try to use the object, we figure out whether it has the features we want:
  • Does it provide a method we need?
  • Can it be coerced into a type we need?

Lab

• Do the first lab on Ruby.
• Be prepared to reflect.