Ruby (see also Ruby ) is a simple and powerful object-oriented scripting language. It was created with knowledge of Perl version 4 and Python ; the author felt "python was not a "true object-oriented language" and thus created Ruby.
The major features are
Iterators
These are methods that accept either a block (e.g. - anonymous procedure, much like a Lisp lambda expression or a block in the Algol sense) or the name of a Proc (aka function or procedure ).
Using mark-and-sweep, not merely reference counting...
Ruby has much of the same semantics as Smalltalk , with a very similar object model, but with more Algol-like language syntax, based in part on Perl , but also with some "flavor" of Eiffel and/or Ada .
You may also find the book Programming Ruby useful...
The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC - Comprehensive list of Ruby links
I wrote a chapter on the use of Ruby for SOAP and XML-RPC in the book Professional Open Source Web Services.