Editing Ruby (programming language) (section)

== Features ==

* Thoroughly [[object-oriented]] with [[Inheritance (object-oriented programming)|inheritance]], [[mixin]]s and [[metaclass]]es<ref name="stewart" />
* [[Dynamic typing]] and [[duck typing]]
* Everything is an [[Expression (programming)|expression]] (even [[Statement (programming)|statements]]) and everything is executed [[Imperative programming|imperatively]] (even [[Declaration (computer science)|declarations]])
* Succinct and flexible syntax<ref name="venners-productivity" /> that minimizes [[syntactic noise]] and serves as a foundation for [[domain-specific languages]]<ref name="fowler-dsl" />
* Dynamic [[Reflective programming|reflection]] and [[Dynamic programming language#Object runtime alteration|alteration]] of objects to facilitate [[metaprogramming]]<ref name="codeproject-dynamic" />
* [[Closure (computer science)|Lexical closures]], [[iterator]]s and [[Generator (computer science)|generators]], with a [[Ruby syntax#Blocks and iterators|block syntax]]<ref name="venners-closures" />
* Literal notation for [[Dynamic array|arrays]], [[Associative array|hashes]], [[regular expression]]s and [[Symbol (Lisp)|symbols]]
* Embedding code in strings ([[Variable interpolation|interpolation]])
* [[Default argument]]s
* Four levels of variable scope ([[Global variable|global]], [[Class variable|class]], [[Instance variable|instance]], and [[Local variable|local]]) denoted by [[Sigil (computer programming)|sigils]] or the lack thereof
* [[Garbage collection (computer science)|Garbage collection]]
* [[First-class continuation]]s
* Strict Boolean [[Implicit type conversion|coercion]] rules (everything is ''true'' except <code>false</code> and <code>[[Null pointer|nil]]</code>)
* [[Exception handling]]
* [[Operator overloading]]<ref name="Methods"/>
* Built-in support for [[rational number]]s, [[complex number]]s and [[arbitrary-precision arithmetic]]
* Custom dispatch behavior (through <code>method_missing</code> and <code>const_missing</code>)
* Native [[Thread (computer science)|threads]] and cooperative [[Fiber (computer science)|fibers]] (fibers are a 1.9/[[YARV]] feature)
* Support for [[Unicode]] and multiple [[character encoding]]s.
* Native [[Plug-in (computing)|plug-in]] API in [[C (programming language)|C]]
* Interactive Ruby Shell, an interactive command-line interpreter that can be used to test code quickly ([[Read–eval–print loop|REPL]])
* Centralized package management through [[RubyGems]]
* Implemented on all major platforms
* Large standard library, including modules for [[YAML]], [[JSON]], [[XML]], [[Common Gateway Interface|CGI]], [[OpenSSL]], [[HTTP]], [[FTP]], [[RSS]], [[curses (programming library)|curses]], [[zlib]] and [[Tk (software)|Tk]]<ref name="stdlib-master" />
* [[Just-in-time compilation]]