This is a beautifully written tutorial begins with basic steps to get your first Ruby program up and running and continue to explore advanced topics such as callable objects, reflection, and threading. The Well-grounded Rubyists is revised and updated edition of the best-selling overall Ruby for Rails. It covers Ruby 1.9, and maintain the same sharp focus and clear writing that makes Ruby for Rails prominent. Starting with the basics, The Well-grounded Rubyists explains Ruby objects and their interaction from the bottom up. Along the way, readers are introduced to various tools included in the standard Ruby distribution - tools such as Rake task manager and interpreter-based interactive Ruby irb console - which facilitates the development of Ruby and make it an integrated experience and fun. This book covers advanced topics, such as Ruby-class design and system modules, and use Ruby threads, take a new Rubyists even deeper into the language and give every reader the necessary foundation to use, explore, and enjoy this incredibly popular and versatile language .