Software Scripting

The goal of this material is to prepare the reader to write and execute programming scripts. The art of writing and executing scripts is not exclusive to Ruby, and in fact, is possible in all general-purpose scripting languages. What is unique to Ruby, and unique to each language, is how these programs are defined. This aspect of a language is called its syntax.

Each language has its own language syntax which maps to an interpretation (or a compilation) software which converts what is typed to machine code. For a software programmer, writing correct syntax is imperative to having an executable program -- if the code is mistyped or does not follow syntactical rules, the program simply will not run.

Once syntax is understood, the next imperative step is to define and order correct statements which produce the desired result. For a software programmer, this step is handled by mastery of algorithmic thinking. This material is presented in four parts. The first dealing with how the Ruby programming language is defined syntactically -- how to write so that the Ruby interpreter can read and parse the code. The second section, Algorithmic Thinking, provides a best-practice guide for approaching writing algorithms. The trailing sections are algorithmic practice exercises with problem and solution statements.