Documentation

Books, tutorials, API references, and guides for the Ruby programming language.

Online Books

Online Book

Programming Ruby (Pickaxe)

The definitive Ruby reference by Dave Thomas & Andy Hunt, available to read online. Also known as the Pick Axe Book. Also available via Ruby Central.

Open Source

Sean Chittenden's rubydoc

An open-source Ruby reference written collaboratively by various members of the Ruby community.

API References

API

Standard Library API

Basic documentation for the classes, modules, and libraries included with the standard Ruby distribution.

API

Ruby Language Syntax

Reference documentation for Ruby language syntax and constructs.

XML

REXML

Pure-Ruby XML parser. API documentation for the REXML library included with Ruby.

Tutorials & Translations

German

Einführung in Ruby

A German translation of Daniel Carrera's "Introduction to Ruby", translated by Robert Gogolok. Chapters added as they are completed.

Tutorial

Introduction to Ruby

Daniel Carrera's introductory guide to the Ruby programming language. The source material for the German translation hosted here.

Documentation Tools

Tool

RDoc

The essential Ruby documentation tool. Creates documentation in HTML, XML, RDF, and other formats by parsing Ruby source code and embedded comments.

Tool

Rimport

Allows creation of ri data files from RDoc XML output. Useful for importing new data files into the ri documentation system.

Tool

RUDE4C

Generates documentation from Ruby library extensions written in C. Scans code for expressions like rb_define_class to extract class and module trees. Outputs plain text, rd-style, or HTML.