IronRuby Unleashed

Abstract

Ruby is a dynamic language. It combines ideas from Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp to provide an intuitive, flexible, and simple-to-use language. Its strengths are in its permissive syntax and powerful built-in capabilities, especially metaprogramming capabilities. However, it never appealed to .NET developers because it lacked integration with .NET code. This situation has changed with the birth of IronRuby. IronRuby is Microsoft’s implementation of the Ruby language. It runs on top of the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR), which is a special dynamic language service provider that is built on top of the Common Language Runtime (CLR). IronRuby provides seamless integration with .NET code. It enables you to use .NET objects in Ruby code just as if they were pure Ruby objects. This opens vast opportunities to the .NET world and to the Ruby world. Both sides gain the power and strength of the other and provide together a new and exciting development environment.