Welcome to Learn Ruby the Hard Way, 3rd Edition. You can visit the companion site to the book athttp://learnrubythehardway.org/ where you can purchase digital downloads and paper versions of the book. The free HTML version of the book is available at http://learnrubythehardway.org/book/.

Ruby is a programming language from Japan (available at ruby-lang.org) which is revolutionizing the web. The beauty of Ruby is found in its balance between simplicity and power.

Try out Ruby code in the prompt on the right. In addition to Ruby's built-in methods, the following commands are available:

Explore the Ruby on Rails web framework right in your browser!

Rails for Zombies helps you get your feet wet without worrying about configuration — and you'll have some fun while you're at it.

Each level begins with a quick video lesson, followed by interactive challenges where you program Rails in the browser.

Ruby on Rails (or just “Rails” for short) is a web development framework written in the Ruby programming language. Since its debut in 2004, Ruby on Rails has rapidly become one of the most powerful and popular tools for building dynamic web applications.