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LEARN RUBY
THE HARD WAY
Third Edition
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LEARN RUBY
THE HARD WAY
A Simple and Idiomatic Introduction
to the Imaginative World of
Computational Thinking with Code

Third Edition

Zed A. Shaw

Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San Francisco

New York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris • Madrid
Capetown • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shaw, Zed, author.
Learn Ruby the hard way : a simple and idiomatic introduction to the imaginative world of computational
thinking with code / Zed A. Shaw.—Third edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-321-88499-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Ruby (Computer program language) I. Title.
QA76.73.R83S536 2014
005.1’17—dc23
2014033534

Copyright © 2015 Zed A. Shaw

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and
permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval
system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
likewise. To obtain permission to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson
Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may
fax your request to (201) 236-3290.

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-88499-2
ISBN-10: 0-321-88499-X

Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at RR Donnelley in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
First printing, December 2014
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Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Hard Way Is Easier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Reading and Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Attention to Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Spotting Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Do Not Copy-Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Using the Included Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A Note on Practice and Persistence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A Warning for the Smarties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Exercise 0 The Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
OS X: What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Windows: What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Linux: What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Finding Things on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Warnings for Beginners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Exercise 1 A Good First Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Exercise 2 Comments and Pound Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Exercise 3 Numbers and Math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
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vi CONTENTS

Exercise 4 Variables and Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Exercise 5 More Variables and Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Exercise 6 Strings and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Exercise 7 More Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Exercise 8 Printing, Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Exercise 9 Printing, Printing, Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Exercise 10 What Was That? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Escape Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Exercise 11 Asking Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Exercise 12 Prompting People for Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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CONTENTS vii

Exercise 13 Parameters, Unpacking, Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Exercise 14 Prompting and Passing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Exercise 15 Reading Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Exercise 16 Reading and Writing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Exercise 17 More Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Exercise 18 Names, Variables, Code, Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Exercise 19 Functions and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Exercise 20 Functions and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Exercise 21 Functions Can Return Something . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
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viii CONTENTS

Exercise 22 What Do You Know So Far? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

What You Are Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Exercise 23 Read Some Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Exercise 24 More Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Exercise 25 Even More Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Exercise 26 Congratulations, Take a Test! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Exercise 27 Memorizing Logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
The Truth Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
The Truth Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Exercise 28 Boolean Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Exercise 29 What If . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Exercise 30 Else and If . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Exercise 31 Making Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Exercise 32 Loops and Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
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CONTENTS ix

Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Exercise 33 While Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Exercise 34 Accessing Elements of Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Exercise 35 Branches and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Exercise 36 Designing and Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Rules for If-Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Rules for Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Tips for Debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Homework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Exercise 37 Symbol Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
String Escape Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Reading Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Exercise 38 Doing Things to Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
What Arrays Can Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
When to Use Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Exercise 39 Hashes, Oh Lovely Hashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
A Hash Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
What Hashes Can Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
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x CONTENTS

Making Your Own Hash Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

The Code Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Three Levels of Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
What You Should See (Again) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
When to Use Hashes or Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Exercise 40 Modules, Classes, and Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Modules Are Like Hashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Classes Are Like Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Objects Are Like Require . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Getting Things from Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
A First Class Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Exercise 41 Learning to Speak Object Oriented . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Word Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Phrase Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Combined Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
A Reading Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Practice English to Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Reading More Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Exercise 42 Is-A, Has-A, Objects, and Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
How This Looks in Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Exercise 43 Basic Object-Oriented Analysis and Design . . . . . . . . . 164
The Analysis of a Simple Game Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Write or Draw about the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Extract Key Concepts and Research Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Create a Class Hierarchy and Object Map for the Concepts . . . 167
Code the Classes and a Test to Run Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
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CONTENTS xi

Repeat and Re ne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Top Down Versus Bottom Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
The Code for ”Gothons from Planet Percal #25” . . . . . . . . . . . 170
What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Exercise 44 Inheritance Versus Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
What Is Inheritance? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Implicit Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Override Explicitly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Alter Before or After . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
All Three Combined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Using super() with initialize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
When to Use Inheritance or Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Exercise 45 You Make a Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Evaluating Your Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Function Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Class Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Code Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Good Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Evaluate Your Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Exercise 46 A Project Skeleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Creating the Skeleton Project Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Final Directory Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Testing Your Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Using the Skeleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Required Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Exercise 47 Automated Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Writing a Test Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Testing Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
 “Shaw_FM” — 2014/11/8 — 17:24 — page xii — #12

xii CONTENTS

What You Should See . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Exercise 48 Advanced User Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Our Game Lexicon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Breaking Up a Sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Lexicon Tuples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Scanning Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Exceptions and Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
A Test First Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
What You Should Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Exercise 49 Making Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Match and Peek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
The Sentence Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
A Word on Exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
The Parser Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Playing with the Parser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
What You Should Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Exercise 50 Your First Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Installing Sinatra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Make a Simple ”Hello World” Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
What’s Happening Here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Stopping and Reloading Sinatra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Fixing Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Create Basic Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Common Student Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Exercise 51 Getting Input from a Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
How the Web Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
How Forms Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
 “Shaw_FM” — 2014/11/8 — 17:24 — page xiii — #13

CONTENTS xiii

Creating HTML Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Creating a Layout Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Writing Automated Tests for Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Study Drills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Common Student Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Exercise 52 The Start of Your Web Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Refactoring the Exercise 43 Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Sessions and Tracking Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Creating an Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Your Final Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
How to Learn Any Programming Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Advice from an Old Programmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Appendix Command Line Crash Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Introduction: Shut Up and Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
How to Use This Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
You Will Be Memorizing Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
The Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Paths, Folders, and Directories (pwd) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
If You Get Lost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Make a Directory (mkdir) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Change Directory (cd) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
 “Shaw_FM” — 2014/11/8 — 17:24 — page xiv — #14

xiv CONTENTS

You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
List Directory (ls) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Remove Directory (rmdir) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Moving Around (pushd, popd) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Making Empty Files (Touch, New-Item) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Copy a File (cp) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Moving a File (mv) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
View a File (less, MORE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Stream a File (cat) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
 “Shaw_FM” — 2014/11/8 — 17:24 — page xv — #15

CONTENTS xv

Removing a File (rm) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Exiting Your Terminal (exit) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Do This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
You Learned This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Command Line Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
UNIX Bash References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
PowerShell References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
This page intentionally left blank
 “Shaw_Preface” — 2014/11/8 — 17:27 — page 1 — #1

Preface

T his simple book is meant to get you started in programming. The title says it’s the hard way to
learn to write code, but it’s actually not. It’s only the ”hard” way because it uses a technique
called instruction. Instruction is where I tell you to do a sequence of controlled exercises designed
to build a skill through repetition. This technique works very well with beginners, who know noth-
ing and need to acquire basic skills before they can understand more complex topics. It’s used in
everything from martial arts to music, to even basic math and reading skills.

This book instructs you in Ruby by slowly building and establishing skills through techniques like
practice and memorization, then applying them to increasingly dif cult problems. By the end of
the book you will have the tools needed to begin learning more complex programming topics. I
like to tell people that my book gives you your ”programming black belt.” What this means is that
you know the basics well enough to now start learning programming.

If you work hard, take your time, and build these skills, you will learn to code.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Angela for helping me with the rst two versions of this book. Without her,
I probably wouldn’t have bothered to nish it at all. She did the copyediting of the rst draft, and
supported me immensely while I wrote it.

I also want to thank Rob Sobers for suggesting I make a Ruby version of my Python book and doing
the initial work helping me convert it to use Ruby.

I’d also like to thank Greg Newman for doing the original cover art, Brian Shumate for early website
designs, and all of the people who read this book and took the time to send me feedback and
corrections.

Thank you.
 “Shaw_Ex00” — 2014/11/7 — 18:41 — page 2 — #1

The Hard Way Is Easier

W ith the help of this book, you will do the incredibly simple things that all programmers do
to learn a programming language:

1. Go through each exercise.

2. Type in each sample exactly.

3. Make it run.

That’s it. This will be very dif cult at rst, but stick with it. If you go through this book, and do each
exercise for one or two hours a night, you will have a good foundation for moving onto another
book about Ruby to continue your studies. This book won’t turn you into a programmer overnight,
but it will get you started on the path to learning how to code.

This book’s job is to teach you the three most essential skills that a beginning programmer needs
to know: reading and writing, attention to detail, and spotting differences.

Reading and Writing

If you have a problem typing, you will have a problem learning to code, and especially if you have
a problem typing the fairly odd characters in source code. Without this simple skill you will be
unable to learn even the most basic things about how software works.

Typing the code samples and getting them to run will help you learn the names of the symbols,
get familiar with typing them, and get you reading the language.

Attention to Detail
The one skill that separates bad programmers from good programmers is attention to detail. In
fact, it’s what separates the good from the bad in any profession. You must pay attention to the
tiniest details of your work or you will miss important elements of what you create. In program-
ming, this is how you end up with bugs and dif cult-to-use systems.

By going through this book, and copying each example exactly, you will be training your brain to
focus on the details of what you are doing, as you are doing it.
 “Shaw_Ex00” — 2014/11/7 — 18:41 — page 3 — #2

THE HARD WAY IS EASIER 3

Spotting Differences
A very important skill (that most programmers develop over time) is the ability to visually notice
differences between things. An experienced programmer can take two pieces of code that are
slightly different and immediately start pointing out the differences. Programmers have invented
tools to make this even easier, but we won’t be using any of these. You rst have to train your
brain the hard way; then use the tools.

While you do these exercises, typing each one in, you will be making mistakes. It’s inevitable; even
seasoned programmers would make a few. Your job is to compare what you have written to what’s
required, and x all the differences. By doing so, you will train yourself to notice mistakes, bugs,
and other problems.

Do Not Copy-Paste
You must type each of these exercises in, manually. If you copy and paste, you might as well not
even do them. The point of these exercises is to train your hands, your brain, and your mind in how
to read, write, and see code. If you copy-paste, you are cheating yourself out of the effectiveness
of the lessons.

Using the Included Videos

Learn Ruby the Hard Way has more than ve hours of instructional videos to help you with the
book. There is one video for each exercise where I either demonstrate the exercise, or give you tips
for completing the exercise. The best way to use the videos is if you are stuck when attempting
an exercise or for review after you have completed an exercise. This will slowly wean you off of
using videos to learn programming and build your skills at understanding code directly. Stick with
it, and slowly you won’t need the videos, or any videos, to learn programming. You’ll be able to
just read for the information you need.

A Note on Practice and Persistence

While you are studying programming, I’m studying how to play guitar. I practice it every day for at
least two hours. I play scales, chords, and arpeggios for an hour; and then I learn music theory, ear
training, songs, and anything else I can. Some days I study guitar and music for eight hours because
I feel like it and it’s fun. To me, repetitive practice is natural and just how to learn something. I
know that to get good at anything I have to practice every day, even if I suck that day (which is
often) or it’s dif cult. Keep trying and eventually it’ll be easier and fun.
 “Shaw_Ex00” — 2014/11/7 — 18:41 — page 4 — #3

4 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Between the time that I wrote Learn Python the Hard Way and Learn Ruby the Hard Way, I dis-
covered drawing and painting. I fell in love with making visual art at the age of 39; and I have
been spending every day studying it in much the same way that I studied guitar, music, and pro-
gramming. I collected books of instructional material, did what the books said, painted every
day, and focused on enjoying the process of learning. I am by no means an ”artist,” or even
that good, but I can now say that I can draw and paint. The same method I’m teaching you in
this book applied to my adventures in art. If you break the problem down into small exercises
and lessons, and do them every day, you can learn to do almost anything. If you focus on slowly
improving and enjoying the learning process, then you will bene t no matter how good you
are at it.

As you study this book, and continue with programming, remember that anything worth doing
is dif cult at rst. Maybe you are the kind of person who is afraid of failure, so you give up at
the rst sign of dif culty. Maybe you never learned self-discipline, so you can’t do anything that’s
”boring.” Maybe you were told that you are ”gifted,” so you never attempt anything that might
make you seem stupid or not a prodigy. Maybe you are competitive and unfairly compare yourself
to someone like me who’s been programming for more than 20 years.

Whatever your reason for wanting to quit, keep at it. Force yourself. If you run into a Study Drill
you can’t do, or a lesson you just do not understand, then skip it and come back to it later. Just keep
going, because with programming there’s this very odd thing that happens. At rst, you will not
understand anything. It’ll be weird, just like with learning any human language. You will struggle
with words, and not know what symbols are what, and it’ll all be very confusing. Then one day
BANG—your brain will snap and you will suddenly ”get it.” If you keep doing the exercises and
keep trying to understand them, you will get it. You might not be a master coder, but you will at
least understand how programming works.

If you give up, you won’t ever reach this point. You will hit the rst confusing thing (which is
everything at rst) and then stop. If you keep trying—keep typing it in, trying to understand it
and reading about it—you will eventually get it. If you go through this whole book, and you still
do not understand how to code, at least you gave it a shot. You can say you tried your best and a
little more and it didn’t work out, but at least you tried. You can be proud of that.

A Warning for the Smarties

Sometimes people who already know a programming language will read this book and feel I’m
insulting them. There is nothing in this book that is intended to be interpreted as condescending,
insulting, or belittling. I simply know more about programming than my intended readers. If you
think you are smarter than me, then you will feel talked down to and there’s nothing I can do
about that because you are not my intended reader.
 “Shaw_Ex00” — 2014/11/7 — 18:41 — page 5 — #4

THE HARD WAY IS EASIER 5

If you are reading this book and ipping out at every third sentence because you feel I’m insulting
your intelligence, then I have three points of advice for you:

1. Stop reading my book. I didn’t write it for you. I wrote it for people who don’t already
know everything.

2. Empty before you ll. You will have a hard time learning from someone with more knowl-
edge if you already know everything.

3. Go learn Lisp. I hear people who know everything really like Lisp.

For everyone else who’s here to learn, just read everything as if I’m smiling and I have a mis-
chievous little twinkle in my eye.
 “Shaw_Ex01” — 2014/11/7 — 14:08 — page 12 — #1

12

EXERCISE 1

A Good First Program

Y ou should have spent a good amount of time in Exercise 0 learning how to install a text editor,
run the text editor, run Terminal, and work with both of them. If you haven’t done that, then
do not go on. You will not have a good time. This is the only time I’ll start an exercise with a
warning that you should not skip or get ahead of yourself.

Type the following text into a single le named ex1.rb. Ruby works best with les ending in .rb.
ex1.rb

1 puts "Hello World!"

2 puts "Hello Again"
3 puts "I like typing this."
4 puts "This is fun."
5 puts "Yay! Printing."
6 puts "I'd much rather you 'not'."
7 puts 'I "said" do not touch this.'

If you are on Mac OS X, then this is what your text editor might look like if you use TextWrangler:
 “Shaw_Ex01” — 2014/11/7 — 14:08 — page 13 — #2

A GOOD FIRST PROGRAM 13

If you are on Windows using Notepad++, then this is what it would look like:

Don’t worry if your editor doesn’t look exactly the same, it should be close though. When you
create this le, keep in mind these points:

1. I did not type the line numbers on the left. Those are printed in the book so I can talk
about speci c lines by saying, ”See line 5.” You do not type line numbers into Ruby
scripts.

2. I have the puts at the beginning of the line and it looks exactly the same as what I have
in ex1.rb. Exactly means exactly, not kind of sort of the same. Every single character has
to match for it to work. Color doesn’t matter, only the characters you type.

In Terminal run the le by typing:

ruby ex1.rb

If you did it right, then you should see the same output as in the What You Should See section of
this exercise. If not, you have done something wrong. No, the computer is not wrong.
 “Shaw_Ex01” — 2014/11/7 — 14:08 — page 14 — #3

14 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

What You Should See

On Mac OS X in Terminal you should see this:
 “Shaw_Ex01” — 2014/11/7 — 14:08 — page 15 — #4

A GOOD FIRST PROGRAM 15

On Windows in PowerShell you should see this:

You may see different names before the ruby ex1.rb command, but the important part is that
you type the command and see the output is the same as mine.
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16 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

If you have an error, it will look like this:

> ruby ex1.rb

ex1.rb:3: syntax error, unexpected tCONSTANT, expecting $end
puts "I like typing this."

It’s important that you can read these error messages, because you will be making many of these
mistakes. Even I make many of these mistakes. Let’s look at this line by line.

1. We ran our command in Terminal to run the ex1.rb script.

2. Ruby tells us that the le ex1.rb has an error on line 3. The type of error is ”syntax error,”
and then some programmer jargon you can usually ignore.

3. It prints the offending line of code for us to see.

WARNING! If you are from another country, and you get errors about ASCII encodings,
then put this at the top of your Ruby scripts:

# −*− coding: utf−8 −*−

It will x them so that you can use Unicode UTF-8 in your scripts without a problem.

Study Drills
The Study Drills contain things you should try to do. If you can’t, skip it and come back later.

For this exercise, try these things:

1. Make your script print another line.

2. Make your script print only one of the lines.

3. Put a # (octothorpe) character at the beginning of a line. What did it do? Try to nd out
what this character does.

From now on, I won’t explain how each exercise works unless an exercise is different.

NOTE: An ”octothorpe” is also called a ”pound,” ”hash,” ”mesh,” or any number of

names. Pick the one that makes you chill out.
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A GOOD FIRST PROGRAM 17

Common Student Questions

These are actual questions that real students have asked when doing this exercise.

How do you get colors in your editor?

Save your le rst as a .rb le, such as ex1.rb. Then you’ll have color when you type.

I get ruby: No such file or directory – ex1.rb (LoadError).

You need to be in the same directory as the le you created. Make sure you use the cd command
to go there rst. For example, if you saved your le in lrthw/ex1.rb, then you would type cd
lrthw/ before trying to run ruby ex1.rb. If you don’t know what any of that means, then go
through Appendix A.
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18

EXERCISE 2

Comments and Pound Characters

C omments are very important in your programs. They are used to tell you what something does
in English, and they are used to disable parts of your program if you need to remove them
temporarily. Here’s how you use comments in Ruby:
ex2.rb

1 # A comment, this is so you can read your program later.

2 # Anything after the # is ignored by ruby.
3
4 puts "I could have code like this." # and the comment after is ignored
5
6 # You can also use a comment to "disable" or comment out a piece of code:
7 # puts "This won't run."
8
9 puts "This will run."

From now on, I’m going to write code like this. It is important for you to understand that every-
thing does not have to be literal. Your screen and program may visually look different, but what’s
important is the text you type into the le you’re writing in your text editor. In fact, I could work
with any text editor and the results would be the same.

What You Should See

Exercise 2 Session

$ ruby ex2.rb
I could have code like this.
This will run.

Again, I’m not going to show you screenshots of all the Terminals possible. You should understand
that the above is not a literal translation of what your output should look like visually, but the text
between the rst $ ruby ... and last $ lines will be what you focus on.

Study Drills
1. Find out if you were right about what the # character does and make sure you know what
it’s called (octothorpe or pound character).

2. Take your ex2.rb le and review each line going backward. Start at the last line, and
check each word in reverse against what you should have typed.
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COMMENTS AND POUND CHARACTERS 19

3. Did you nd more mistakes? Fix them.

4. Read what you typed out loud, including saying each character by its name. Did you nd
more mistakes? Fix them.

Common Student Questions

Are you sure # is called the pound character?
I call it the octothorpe because that is the only name that no country uses, and that works in every
country. Every country thinks its name for this one character is both the most important way to do
it and the only way it’s done. To me, this is simply arrogance and, really, y’all should just chill out
and focus on more important things like learning to code.

If # is for comments, then how come # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- works?
Ruby still ignores that as code, but it’s used as a kind of ”hack” or workaround for problems with
setting and detecting the format of a le. You will also nd a similar kind of comment for editor
settings.

Why does the # in puts "Hi # there." not get ignored?

The # in that code is inside a string, so it will be put into the string until the ending " character is
hit. These pound characters are just considered characters and aren’t considered comments.

How do I comment out multiple lines?

Put a # in front of each one.

I can’t gure out how to type a # character on my country’s keyboard.

Some countries use the Alt key and combinations of other keys to print characters foreign to their
language. You’ll have to look online in a search engine to see how to type it.

Why do I have to read code backward?

It’s a trick to make your brain not attach meaning to each part of the code, and doing that makes
you process each piece exactly. This catches errors and is a handy error-checking technique.
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249

APPENDIX

Command Line Crash Course

T his appendix is a quick, super-fast course in using the command line. It is intended to be done
rapidly in about a day or two, and is not meant to teach you advanced shell usage.

Introduction: Shut Up and Shell

This appendix is a crash course in using the command line to make your computer perform tasks.
As a crash course, it’s not as detailed or extensive as my other books. It is simply designed to get
you barely capable enough to start using your computer like a real programmer does. When you’re
done with this appendix, you will be able to give most of the basic commands that every shell user
touches every day. You’ll understand the basics of directories and a few other concepts.

The only piece of advice I am going to give you is this:

Shut up and type all of this in.

Sorry to be mean, but that’s what you have to do. If you have an irrational fear of the command
line, the only way to conquer an irrational fear is to just shut up and ght through it.

You are not going to destroy your computer. You are not going to be thrown into some jail at the
bottom of Microsoft’s Redmond campus. Your friends won’t laugh at you for being a nerd. Simply
ignore any stupid weird reasons you have for fearing the command line.

Why? Because if you want to learn to code, then you must learn this. Programming languages
are advanced ways to control your computer with language. The command line is the little baby
brother of programming languages. Learning the command line teaches you to control the com-
puter using language. Once you get past that, you can then move on to writing code and feeling
like you actually own the hunk of metal you just bought.

How to Use This Appendix

The best way to use this appendix is to do the following:

• Get yourself a small paper notebook and a pen.

• Start at the beginning of the appendix and do each exercise exactly as you’re told.

• When you read something that doesn’t make sense or that you don’t understand, write
it down in your notebook. Leave a little space so you can write an answer.
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250 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

• After you nish an exercise, go back through your notebook and review the questions
you have. Try to answer them by searching online and asking friends who might know
the answer. Email me at help@learncodethehardway.org and I’ll help you, too.

Just keep going through this process of doing an exercise, writing down questions you have, then
going back through and answering the questions you can. By the time you’re done, you’ll actually
know a lot more than you think about using the command line.

You Will Be Memorizing Things

I’m warning you ahead of time that I’m going to make you memorize things right away. This is the
quickest way to get you capable at something, but for some people memorization is painful. Just
ght through it and do it anyway. Memorization is an important skill in learning things, so you
should get over your fear of it.

Here’s how you memorize things:

• Tell yourself you will do it. Don’t try to nd tricks or easy ways out of it, just sit down and
do it.

• Write what you want to memorize on some index cards. Put one half of what you need
to learn on one side, then the other half on the other side.

• Every day for about 15–30 minutes, drill yourself on the index cards, trying to recall each
one. Put any cards you don’t get right into a different pile, just drill those cards until you
get bored, and then try the whole deck and see if you improve.

• Before you go to bed, drill just the cards you got wrong for about 5 minutes, then go to
sleep.

There are other techniques, like you can write what you need to learn on a sheet of paper, laminate
it, then stick it to the wall of your shower. While you’re bathing, drill the knowledge without
looking, and when you get stuck glance at it to refresh your memory.

If you do this every day, you should be able to memorize most of the things I tell you to memorize in
about a week to a month. Once you do, nearly everything else becomes easier and intuitive, which
is the purpose of memorization. It’s not to teach you abstract concepts, but rather to ingrain the
basics so that they are intuitive and you don’t have to think about them. Once you’ve memorized
these basics, they stop being speed bumps preventing you from learning more advanced abstract
concepts.
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 251

The Setup
In this appendix you will be instructed to do three things:

• Do some things in your shell (command line, Terminal, PowerShell).

• Learn about what you just did.

• Do more on your own.

For this rst exercise, you’ll be expected to get your Terminal open and working so that you can
do the rest of the appendix.

Do This
Get your Terminal, shell, or PowerShell working so you can access it quickly and know that it
works.

Mac OS X
For Mac OS X you’ll need to do this:

• Hold down the command key and hit the spacebar.

• In the top right corner, the blue ”search bar” will pop up.

• Type: terminal

• Click on the Terminal application that looks kind of like a black box.

• This will open Terminal.

• You can now go to your dock and CTRL-click to pull up the menu, then select
Options->Keep In dock.

Now you have your Terminal open and it’s in your dock so you can get to it.

Linux
I’m assuming that if you have Linux, then you already know how to get at your Terminal. Look
through the menu for your window manager for anything named ”Shell” or ”Terminal.”
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252 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Windows
On Windows, we’re going to use PowerShell. People used to work with a program called cmd.exe,
but it’s not nearly as usable as PowerShell. If you have Windows 7 or later, do this:

• Click Start.

• In ”Search programs and les” type: powershell

• Hit Enter.

If you don’t have Windows 7, you should seriously consider upgrading. If you still insist on not
upgrading then you can try installing it from Microsoft’s download center. Search online to nd
”powershell downloads” for your version of Windows. You are on your own, though, since I don’t
have Windows XP, but hopefully the PowerShell experience is the same.

You Learned This

You learned how to get your Terminal open, so you can do the rest of this appendix.

WARNING! If you have that really smart friend who already knows Linux, ignore him
when he tells you to use something other than bash. I’m teaching you bash. That’s it.
He will claim that zsh will give you 30 more IQ points and win you millions in the stock
market. Ignore him. Your goal is to get capable enough and at this level it doesn’t
matter which shell you use. The next warning is stay off IRC or other places where
”hackers” hang out. They think it’s funny to hand you commands that can destroy
your computer. The command rm -rf / is a classic that you must never type. Just
avoid them. If you need help, make sure you get it from someone you trust and not
from random idiots on the Internet.

Do More
This exercise has a large ”do more” part. The other exercises are not as involved as this one, but
I’m having you prime your brain for the rest of the appendix by doing some memorization. Just
trust me: this will make things silky smooth later on.

Linux/Mac OS X
Take this list of commands and create index cards with the names on the left on one side, and
the de nitions on the other side. Drill them every day while continuing with the lessons in this
appendix.
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 253

pwd print working directory

hostname my computer’s network name

mkdir make directory

cd change directory

ls list directory

rmdir remove directory

pushd push directory

popd pop directory

cp copy a le or directory

mv move a le or directory

less page through a le

cat print the whole le

xargs execute arguments

nd nd les

grep nd things inside les

man read a manual page

apropos nd which man page is appropriate

env look at your environment

echo print some arguments

export export/set a new environment variable

exit exit the shell

sudo DANGER! become super user root DANGER!

Windows
If you’re using Windows, then here’s your list of commands:

pwd print working directory

hostname my computer’s network name

mkdir make directory

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254 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

cd change directory

ls list directory

rmdir remove directory

pushd push directory

popd pop directory

cp copy a le or directory

robocopy robust copy

mv move a le or directory

more page through a le

type print the whole le

for les run a command on lots of les

dir -r nd les

select-string nd things inside les

help read a manual page

helpctr nd which manual page is appropriate

echo print some arguments

set export/set a new environment variable

exit exit the shell

runas DANGER! become super user root DANGER!

Drill, drill, drill! Drill until you can say these phrases right away when you see that word. Then drill
the inverse, so that you read the phrase and know which command will do that. You’re building
your vocabulary by doing this, but don’t spend so much time you go nuts and get bored.

Paths, Folders, and Directories (pwd)

In this exercise you learn how to print your working directory with the pwd command.
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 255

Do This
I’m going to teach you how to read these ”sessions” that I show you. You don’t have to type
everything I list here, just some of the parts:

• You do not type in the $ (UNIX) or > (Windows). That’s just me showing you my session
so you can see what I got.

• You type in the stuff after $ or >, then hit Enter. So if I have $ pwd, you type just pwd
and hit Enter.

• You can then see what I have for output followed by another $ or > prompt. That content
is the output and you should see the same output.

Let’s do a simple rst command so you can get the hang of this:

Linux/OS X
Exercise 2 Session

$ pwd
/Users/zedshaw
$

Windows
Exercise 2 Windows Session

PS C:\Users\zed> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed

PS C:\Users\zed>

WARNING! In this appendix I need to save space so that you can focus on the important
details of the commands. To do this, I’m going to strip out the rst part of the prompt
(the PS C:\Users\zed above) and leave just the little > part. This means your prompt
won’t look exactly the same, but don’t worry about that.
Remember that from now on I’ll include only the > to tell you that’s the prompt.
I’m doing the same thing for the UNIX prompts, but UNIX prompts are so varied that
most people get used to $ meaning ”just the prompt.”
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256 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

You Learned This

Your prompt will look different from mine. You may have your user name before the $ and the
name of your computer. On Windows it will probably look different, too. The key is that you see
this pattern:

• There’s a prompt.

• You type a command there. In this case, it’s pwd.

• It printed something.

• Repeat.

You just learned what pwd does, which means ”print working directory.” What’s a directory?
It’s a folder. Folder and directory are the same thing, and they’re used interchangeably. When
you open your le browser on your computer to graphically nd les, you are walking through
folders. Those folders are the exact same things as these ”directories” we’re going to
work with.

Do More

• Type pwd 20 times and each time say ”print working directory.”

• Write down the path that this command gives you. Find it with your graphical le browser
of choice.

• No, seriously, type it 20 times and say it out loud. Sssh. Just do it.

If You Get Lost

As you go through these instructions, you may get lost. You may not know where you are or
where a le is and have no idea how to continue. To solve this problem, I am going to teach you
the commands to type to stop being lost.

Whenever you get lost, it is most likely because you were typing commands and have no idea
where you’ve ended up. What you should do is type pwd to print your current directory. This tells
you where you are.

The next thing you need is a way of getting back to where you are safe, your home. To do this,
type cd ~ and you are back in your home.
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 257

This means if you get lost at any time, you should type:

pwd
cd ~

The rst command pwd tells you where you are. The second command cd ~ takes you home so
you can try again.

Do This
Right now gure out where you are, and then go home using pwd and cd ~. This will ensure that
you are always in the right place.

You Learned This

How to get back to your home if you ever get lost.

Make a Directory (mkdir)

In this exercise you learn how to make a new directory (folder) using the mkdir command.

Do This
Remember! You need to go home rst! Do your pwd and then cd ~ before doing this exercise.
Before you do all exercises in this appendix, always go home rst!

Linux/OS X
Exercise 4 Session

$ pwd
$ cd ~
$ mkdir temp
$ mkdir temp/stuff
$ mkdir temp/stuff/things
$ mkdir -p temp/stuff/things/frank/joe/alex/john
$
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258 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Windows
Exercise 4 Windows Session

> pwd
> cd ~
> mkdir temp

Directory: C:\Users\zed

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:02 AM temp

> mkdir temp/stuff

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:02 AM stuff

> mkdir temp/stuff/things

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM things

> mkdir temp/stuff/things/frank/joe/alex/john

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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 259

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank\joe\alex

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM john

>

This is the only time I’ll list the pwd and cd ~ commands. They are expected in the exercises every
time. Do them all the time.

You Learned This

Now we get into typing more than one command. These are all the different ways you can run
mkdir. What does mkdir do? It make directories. Why are you asking that? You should be doing
your index cards and getting your commands memorized. If you don’t know that ”mkdir makes
directories,” then keep working the index cards.

What does it mean to make a directory? You might call directories ”folders.” They’re the same
thing. All you did in this exercise is create directories inside directories inside of more directories.
This is called a ”path” and it’s a way of saying ” rst temp, then stuff, then things, and that’s where
I want it.” It’s a set of directions to the computer of where you want to put something in the tree
of folders (directories) that make up your computer’s hard disk.

WARNING! In this appendix I’m using the / (slash) character for all paths since it works
the same on all computers now. However, Windows users need to know that you can
also use the \ (backslash) character and other Windows users will expect that at times.

Do More

• The concept of a ”path” might confuse you at this point. Don’t worry. We’ll do a lot more
with them and then you’ll get it.

• Make 20 other directories inside the temp directory in various levels. Go look at them
with a graphical le browser.

• Make a directory with a space in the name by putting quotes around it: mkdir "I Have
Fun"

• If the temp directory already exists, then you’ll get an error. Use cd to change to a work
directory that you can control and try it there. On Windows, Desktop is a good place.
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260 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Change Directory (cd)

In this exercise you learn how to change from one directory to another using the cd command.

Do This
I’m going to give you the instructions for these sessions one more time:

• You do not type in the $ (UNIX) or > (Windows).

• You type in the stuff after this, then hit Enter. If I have $ cd temp you just type cd temp
and hit Enter.

• The output comes after you hit Enter, followed by another $ or > prompt.

• Always go home rst! Do pwd and then cd ~ so you go back to your starting point.

Linux/OS X
Exercise 5 Session

$ cd temp
$ pwd
~/temp
$ cd stuff
$ pwd
~/temp/stuff
$ cd things
$ pwd
~/temp/stuff/things
$ cd frank/
$ pwd
~/temp/stuff/things/frank
$ cd joe/
$ pwd
~/temp/stuff/things/frank/joe
$ cd alex/
$ pwd
~/temp/stuff/things/frank/joe/alex
$ cd john/
$ pwd
~/temp/stuff/things/frank/joe/alex/john
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 261

$ cd ..
$ cd ..
$ pwd
~/temp/stuff/things/frank/joe
$ cd ..
$ cd ..
$ pwd
~/temp/stuff/things
$ cd ../../..
$ pwd
~/
$ cd temp/stuff/things/frank/joe/alex/john
$ pwd
~/temp/stuff/things/frank/joe/alex/john
$ cd ../../../../../../../
$ pwd
~/
$

Windows
Exercise 5 Windows Session

> cd temp
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp

> cd stuff
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff

> cd things
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262 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things

> cd frank
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank

> cd joe
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank\joe

> cd alex
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank\joe\alex

> cd john
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank\joe\alex\john

> cd ..
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 263

> cd ..
> cd ..
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank

> cd ../..
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff

> cd ..
> cd ..
> cd temp/stuff/things/frank/joe/alex/john
> cd ../../../../../../../
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed

>

You Learned This

You made all these directories in the last exercise, and now you’re just moving around inside them
with the cd command. In my session, I also use pwd to check where I am, so remember not to type
the output that pwd prints. For example, on line 3 you see ~/temp but that’s the output of pwd
from the prompt above it. Do not type this in.

You should also see how I use the .. to move ”up” in the tree and path.
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264 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Do More
A very important part of learning to use the command line interface (CLI) on a computer with
a graphical user interface (GUI) is guring out how they work together. When I started using
computers, there was no ”GUI” and you did everything with the DOS prompt (the CLI). Later,
when computers became powerful enough that everyone could have graphics, it was simple for
me to match CLI directories with GUI windows and folders.

Most people today, however, have no comprehension of the CLI, paths, and directories. In fact,
it’s very dif cult to teach it to them and the only way to learn about the connection is for you to
constantly work with the CLI until one day it clicks that things you do in the GUI will show up in
the CLI.

The way you do this is by spending some time nding directories with your GUI le browser, then
going to them with your CLI. This is what you’ll do next.

• cd to the joe directory with one command.

• cd back to temp with one command, but not further above that.

• Find out how to cd to your ”home directory” with one command.

• cd to your Documents directory, then nd it with your GUI le browser (e.g., Finder,
Windows Explorer, etc.).

• cd to your Downloads directory, then nd it with your le browser.

• Find another directory with your le browser, then cd to it.

• Remember when you put quotes around a directory with spaces in it? You can do that
with any command. For example, if you have a directory I Have Fun, then you can do:
cd "I Have Fun"

List Directory (ls)

In this exercise you learn how to list the contents of a directory with the ls command.

Do This
Before you start, make sure you cd back to the directory above temp. If you have no idea where
you are, use pwd to gure it out and then move there.
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 265

Linux/OS X
Exercise 6 Session

$ cd temp
$ ls
stuff
$ cd stuff
$ ls
things
$ cd things
$ ls
frank
$ cd frank
$ ls
joe
$ cd joe
$ ls
alex
$ cd alex
$ ls
$ cd john
$ ls
$ cd ..
$ ls
john
$ cd ../../../
$ ls
frank
$ cd ../../
$ ls
stuff
$

Windows
Exercise 6 Windows Session

> cd temp
> ls
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266 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM stuff

> cd stuff
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM things

> cd things
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM frank

> cd frank
> ls
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 267

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM joe

> cd joe
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank\joe

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM alex

> cd alex
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank\joe\alex

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM john

> cd john
> ls
> cd ..
> ls
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268 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank\joe\alex

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM john

> cd ..
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff\things\frank\joe

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM alex

> cd ../../..
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM things

> cd ..
> ls
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 269

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM stuff

>

You Learned This

The ls command lists out the contents of the directory you are currently in. You can see me use
cd to change into different directories and then list what’s in them so I know which directory to
go to next.

There are a lot of options for the ls command, but you’ll learn how to get help on those later
when we cover the help command.

Do More

• Type every one of these commands in! You have to actually type these to learn them. Just
reading them is not good enough. I’ll stop yelling now.

• On UNIX, try the ls -lR command while you’re in temp.

• On Windows, do the same thing with dir -R.

• Use cd to get to other directories on your computer and then use ls to see what’s in
them.

• Update your notebook with new questions. I know you probably have some, because I’m
not covering everything about this command.

• Remember that if you get lost, then use ls and pwd to gure out where you are, then go
to where you need to be with cd.

Remove Directory (rmdir)

In this exercise you learn how to remove an empty directory.
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270 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Do This

Linux/OS X
Exercise 7 Session

$ cd temp
$ ls
stuff
$ cd stuff/things/frank/joe/alex/john/
$ cd ..
$ rmdir john
$ cd ..
$ rmdir alex
$ cd ..
$ ls
joe
$ rmdir joe
$ cd ..
$ ls
frank
$ rmdir frank
$ cd ..
$ ls
things
$ rmdir things
$ cd ..
$ ls
stuff
$ rmdir stuff
$ pwd
~/temp
$

WARNING! If you try to do rmdir on Mac OS X and it refuses to remove the directory
even though you are positive it’s empty, then there is actually a le in there called
.DS_Store. In that case, type rm -rf <dir> instead (replace <dir> with the direc-
tory name).
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 271

Windows
Exercise 7 Windows Session

> cd temp
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM stuff

> cd stuff/things/frank/joe/alex/john/
> cd ..
> rmdir john
> cd ..
> rmdir alex
> cd ..
> rmdir joe
> cd ..
> rmdir frank
> cd ..
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\stuff

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:14 AM things

> rmdir things

> cd ..
> ls
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272 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/17/2011 9:14 AM stuff

> rmdir stuff

> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp

> cd ..
>

You Learned This

I’m now mixing up the commands so make sure you type them exactly and pay attention. Every
time you make a mistake, it’s because you aren’t paying attention. If you nd yourself making many
mistakes, then take a break or just quit for the day. You’ve always got tomorrow to try again.

In this example you’ll learn how to remove a directory. It’s easy. You just go to the directory right
above it, then type rmdir <dir>, replacing <dir> with the name of the directory to remove.

Do More
• Make 20 more directories and remove them all.

• Make a single path of directories that is 10 deep and remove them one at a time just like
I did.

• If you try to remove a directory with content you will get an error. I’ll show you how to
remove these in later exercises.
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 273

Moving Around (pushd, popd)

In this exercise you learn how to save your current location and go to a new location with pushd.
You then learn how to return to the saved location with popd.

Do This

Linux/OS X
Exercise 8 Session

$ cd temp
$ mkdir -p i/like/icecream
$ pushd i/like/icecream
~/temp/i/like/icecream ~/temp
$ popd
~/temp
$ pwd
~/temp
$ pushd i/like
~/temp/i/like ~/temp
$ pwd
~/temp/i/like
$ pushd icecream
~/temp/i/like/icecream ~/temp/i/like ~/temp
$ pwd
~/temp/i/like/icecream
$ popd
~/temp/i/like ~/temp
$ pwd
~/temp/i/like
$ popd
~/temp
$ pushd i/like/icecream
~/temp/i/like/icecream ~/temp
$ pushd
~/temp ~/temp/i/like/icecream
$ pwd
~/temp
$ pushd
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274 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

~/temp/i/like/icecream ~/temp
$ pwd
~/temp/i/like/icecream
$

Windows
Exercise 8 Windows Session

> cd temp
> mkdir -p i/like/icecream

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\i\like

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/20/2011 11:05 AM icecream

> pushd i/like/icecream

> popd
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp

> pushd i/like

> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\i\like

> pushd icecream

> pwd
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 275

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\i\like\icecream

> popd
> pwd

Path
----
C:\Users\zed\temp\i\like

> popd
>

You Learned This

You’re getting into programmer territory with these commands, but they’re so handy I have to
teach them to you. These commands let you temporarily go to a different directory and then come
back, easily switching between the two.

The pushd command takes your current directory and ”pushes” it into a list for later, then it
changes to another directory. It’s like saying, ”Save where I am, then go here.”

The popd command takes the last directory you pushed and ”pops” it off, taking you back there.

Finally, on UNIX, the command pushd, if you run it by itself with no arguments, will switch be-
tween your current directory and the last one you pushed. It’s an easy way to switch between two
directories. This does not work in PowerShell.

Do More

• Use these commands to move around directories all over your computer.

• Remove the i/like/icecream directories and make your own, then move around in
them.

• Explain to yourself the output that pushd and popd will print out for you. Notice how it
works like a stack?
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276 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

• You already know this, but remember that mkdir -p will make an entire path even if all
the directories don’t exist. That’s what I did very rst for this exercise.

Making Empty Files (Touch, New-Item)

In this exercise you learn how to make an empty le using the touch (new-item on Windows)
command.

Do This

Linux/OS X
Exercise 9 Session

$ cd temp
$ touch iamcool.txt
$ ls
iamcool.txt
$

Windows
Exercise 9 Windows Session

> cd temp
> New-Item iamcool.txt -type file
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 12/17/2011 9:03 AM iamcool.txt

>
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 277

You Learned This

You learned how to make an empty le. On UNIX touch does this, and it also changes the times
on the le. I rarely use it for anything other than making empty les. On Windows, you don’t have
this command, so you learned how to use the New-Item command, which does the same thing
but can also make new directories.

Do More
• UNIX: Make a directory, change to it, and then make a le in it. Then move up one level
and run the rmdir command in this directory. You should get an error. Try to understand
why you got this error.

• Windows: Do the same thing, but you won’t get an error. You’ll get a prompt asking if
you really want to remove the directory.

Copy a File (cp)

In this exercise you learn how to copy a le from one location to another with the cp command.

Do This

Linux/OS X
Exercise 10 Session

$ cd temp
$ cp iamcool.txt neat.txt
$ ls
iamcool.txt neat.txt
$ cp neat.txt awesome.txt
$ ls
awesome.txt iamcool.txt neat.txt
$ cp awesome.txt thefourthfile.txt
$ ls
awesome.txt iamcool.txt neat.txt thefourthfile.txt
$ mkdir something
$ cp awesome.txt something/
$ ls
awesome.txt iamcool.txt neat.txt something thefourthfile.txt
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278 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

$ ls something/
awesome.txt
$ cp -r something newplace
$ ls newplace/
awesome.txt
$

Windows
Exercise 10 Windows Session

> cd temp
> cp iamcool.txt neat.txt
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 iamcool.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 neat.txt

> cp neat.txt awesome.txt

> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 awesome.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 iamcool.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 neat.txt

> cp awesome.txt thefourthfile.txt

> ls
 “Shaw_AppendixA” — 2014/11/7 — 18:37 — page 279 — #31

COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 279

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 awesome.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 iamcool.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 neat.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 thefourthfile.txt

> mkdir something

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM something

> cp awesome.txt something/

> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM something
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 awesome.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 iamcool.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 neat.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 thefourthfile.txt

> ls something
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280 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\something

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 awesome.txt

> cp -recurse something newplace

> ls newplace

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\newplace

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 awesome.txt

>

You Learned This

Now you can copy les. It’s simple to just take a le and copy it to a new one. In this exercise I also
make a new directory and copy a le into that directory.

I’m going to tell you a secret about programmers and system administrators now: they are lazy.
I’m lazy. My friends are lazy. That’s why we use computers. We like to make computers do boring
things for us. In the exercises so far you have been typing repetitive boring commands so that you
can learn them, but usually it’s not like this. Usually if you nd yourself doing something boring
and repetitive, there’s probably a programmer who has gured out how to make it easier. You just
don’t know about it.

The other thing about programmers is they aren’t nearly as clever as you think. If you overthink
what to type, then you’ll probably get it wrong. Instead, try to imagine what the name of a com-
mand is and try it. Chances are that it’s a name or some abbreviation similar to what you thought
it was. If you still can’t gure it out intuitively, then ask around and search online. Hopefully it’s
not something really stupid like ROBOCOPY.
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 281

Do More
• Use the cp -r command to copy more directories with les in them.

• Copy a le to your home directory or desktop.

• Find these les in your graphical user interface and open them in a text editor.

• Notice how sometimes I put a / (slash) at the end of a directory? That makes sure the le
is really a directory, so if the directory doesn’t exist I’ll get an error.

Moving a File (mv)

In this exercise you learn how to move a le from one location to another using the mv command.

Do This

Linux/OS X
Exercise 11 Session

$ cd temp
$ mv awesome.txt uncool.txt
$ ls
newplace uncool.txt
$ mv newplace oldplace
$ ls
oldplace uncool.txt
$ mv oldplace newplace
$ ls
newplace uncool.txt
$

Windows
Exercise 11 Windows Session

> cd temp
> mv awesome.txt uncool.txt
> ls
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282 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM newplace
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM something
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 iamcool.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 neat.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 thefourthfile.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 uncool.txt

> mv newplace oldplace

> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM oldplace
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM something
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 iamcool.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 neat.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 thefourthfile.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 uncool.txt

> mv oldplace newplace

> ls newplace
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 283

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp\newplace

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 awesome.txt

> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM newplace
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM something
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 iamcool.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 neat.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 thefourthfile.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 uncool.txt

>

You Learned This

Moving les or, rather, renaming them. It’s easy: give the old name and the new name.

Do More

• Move a le in the newplace directory to another directory, then move it back.

View a File (less, MORE)

To do this exercise you’re going to do some work using the commands you know so far. You’ll also
need a text editor that can make plain text (.txt) les. Here’s what you do:

• Open your text editor and type some stuff into a new le. On OS X this could be
TextWrangler. On Windows this might be Notepad++. On Linux this could be gedit. Any
editor will work.
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284 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

• Save that le to your desktop and name it test.txt.

• In your shell use the commands you know to copy this le to your temp directory that
you’ve been working with.

Once you’ve done that, complete this exercise.

Do This

Linux/OS X
Exercise 12 Session

$ less test.txt
[displays file here]
$

That’s it. To get out of less, just type q (as in quit).

Windows
Exercise 12 Windows Session

> more test.txt

[displays file here]
>

WARNING! In the output I’m showing [displays file here] to ”abbreviate” what
that program shows. I’ll do this when I mean to say, ”Showing you the output of
this program is too complex, so just insert what you see on your computer here and
pretend I did show it to you.” Your screen will not actually show this.

You Learned This

This is one way to look at the contents of a le. It’s useful because, if the le has many lines, it will
”page” so that only one screenful at a time is visible. In the Do More section, you’ll play with this
some more.

Do More
• Open your text le again and repeatedly copy-paste the text so that it’s about 50–100
lines long.

• Copy it to your temp directory again so you can look at it.

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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 285

• Now do the exercise again, but this time page through it. On UNIX you use the spacebar
and w (the letter w) to go down and up. Arrow keys also work. On Windows, just hit the
spacebar to page through.

• Look at some of the empty les you created.

• The cp command will overwrite les that already exist, so be careful when copying les
around.

Stream a File (cat)

You’re going to do some more setup for this one so you get used to making les in one program
and then accessing them from the command line. With the same text editor from the last exercise,
create another le named test2.txt but this time save it directly to your temp directory.

Do This

Linux/OS X
Exercise 13 Session

$ less test2.txt
[displays file here]
$ cat test2.txt
I am a fun guy.
Don't you know why?
Because I make poems,
that make babies cry.
$ cat test.txt
Hi there this is cool.
$

Windows
Exercise 13 Windows Session

> more test2.txt

[displays file here]
> cat test2.txt
I am a fun guy.
Don't you know why?
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286 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Because I make poems,

that make babies cry.
> cat test.txt
Hi there this is cool.
>

Remember that when I say [displays file here], I’m abbreviating the output of that command
so I don’t have to show you exactly everything.

You Learned This

Do you like my poem? Totally going to win a Nobel. Anyway, you already know the rst command,
and I’m just having you check that your le is there. Then you cat the le to the screen. This
command spews the whole le to the screen with no paging or stopping. To demonstrate that, I
have you do this to the test.txt, which should just spew a bunch of lines from that exercise.

Do More

• Make a few more text les and work with cat.

• UNIX: Try cat test.txt test2.txt and see what it does.

• Windows: Try cat test.txt,test2.txt and see what it does.

Removing a File (rm)

In this exercise you learn how to remove (delete) a le using the rm command.

Do This

Linux/OS X
Exercise 14 Session

$ cd temp
$ ls
uncool.txt iamcool.txt neat.txt something thefourthfile.txt
$ rm uncool.txt
$ ls
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 287

iamcool.txt neat.txt something thefourthfile.txt

$ rm iamcool.txt neat.txt thefourthfile.txt
$ ls
something
$ cp -r something newplace
$
$ rm something/awesome.txt
$ rmdir something
$ rm -rf newplace
$ ls
$

Windows
Exercise 14 Windows Session

> cd temp
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM newplace
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM something
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 iamcool.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 neat.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 thefourthfile.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 uncool.txt

> rm uncool.txt
> ls
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288 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM newplace
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM something
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 iamcool.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 neat.txt
-a--- 12/22/2011 4:49 PM 0 thefourthfile.txt

> rm iamcool.txt
> rm neat.txt
> rm thefourthfile.txt
> ls

Directory: C:\Users\zed\temp

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM newplace
d---- 12/22/2011 4:52 PM something

> cp -r something newplace

> rm something/awesome.txt
> rmdir something
> rm -r newplace
> ls
>

You Learned This

Here we clean up the les from the last exercise. Remember when I had you try to rmdir on a
directory with something in it? Well, that failed because you can’t remove a directory with les in
it. Instead you have to remove the le, or recursively delete all of its contents. That’s what you did
at the end of this example.
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COMMAND LINE CRASH COURSE 289

Do More
• Clean up everything in temp from all the exercises so far.

• Write in your notebook to be careful when running recursive remove commands on les.

Exiting Your Terminal (exit)

Do This

Linux/OS X
Exercise 23 Session

$ exit

Windows
Exercise 23 Windows Session

> exit

You Learned This

Your nal exercise is how to exit a Terminal. Again, this is very easy, but I’m going to have you do
more.

Do More
For your last set of exercises, I want you to use the help system to look up a set of commands you
should research and learn how to use on your own.

Here’s the list for UNIX:

• xargs

• sudo

• chmod

• chown
 “Shaw_AppendixA” — 2014/11/7 — 18:37 — page 290 — #42

290 LEARN RUBY THE HARD WAY

For Windows, look up these things:

• forfiles

• runas

• attrib

• icacls

Find out what these are, play with them, and then add them to your index cards.

Command Line Next Steps

You have completed the crash course. At this point you should be a barely capable shell user. There’s
a huge list of tricks and key sequences you don’t know yet, and I’m going to give you a few nal
places to go research more.

UNIX Bash References

The shell you’ve been using is called bash. It’s not the greatest shell but it’s everywhere and has a
lot of features so it’s a good start. Here’s a short list of links about bash you should visit:

Bash Cheat Sheet http://cli.learncodethehardway.org/bash_cheat_sheet.pdf created by Raph-

ael and CC licensed.

Reference Manual http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html

PowerShell References
On Windows, there’s really only PowerShell. Here’s a list of useful links related to PowerShell:

Owner’s Manual http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee221100.aspx

Cheat Sheet http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=7097

Master PowerShell http://powershell.com/cs/blogs/ebook/default.aspx

 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 291 — #1

291

INDEX

Index
Symbols [ (left bracket), opening arrays with, 106–108
" (double quotes) ] (right bracket), closing arrays with, 106–108
escaping, 38 > (prompts), 50–51
strings and, 28, 33
variables and, 30 Numbers
' (single quotes) 2-dimensional (2D) arrays, 108
escaping, 38 8080 port, 219–223
strings and, 33
A
variables and, 30
Addresses, de ned, 225
" " " (triple quotes), 37–38
Advanced user input
/ (forward-slash) characters, 38–40
exceptions in, 206
\ (backslash) characters, 38–40
game lexicon and, 204–206
_ (underscore) characters, 24
introduction to, 204
|| (or) expressions, 91–96
lexicon types in, 205
+= (increment by) operators, 71–72, 99
numbers in, 206
= (equal) characters
questions about, 210
== vs., 25
sentence breaks in, 204–205
ARGV and, 46–51
Study Drills on, 209
in asking questions of users, 42
testing rst, 206–207
escaping quotes, 38
testing procedures, 207–209
format strings and, 34–37 writing scanners in, 205
naming variables with, 24–26 Advice for programmers, 246–247
printing variables with, 28–29 After inheritance, 180–182
returning values from functions with, 74–76 Algorithms, 140
setting variables to numbers, 44–45 Analysis
setting variables to strings, 30–33 of game engines. See Game engine analysis
== (double equal) characters, 25, 92–96 of games, 188–189, 191
! (not) expressions, 91–96 object-oriented. See Object-oriented
!= (not equal) characters, 91–96 analysis
# (pound) characters, 18–19 top down versus bottom up, 170–176
## ?? comments, 159–161 And (&&) expressions, 91–96
#{} (format activators), 28, 35 Argument variable (ARGV). See ARGV
% (modulus) operators, 22, 35 (argument variable)
%{} (format activators), 35 ArgumentError, 206
&& (and) expressions, 91–96 Arguments
*args (asterisk args), 63–65 *args, 63–65
@ (object scope), 125, 149–151 ARGV. See ARGV (argument variable)
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 292 — #2

292 INDEX

Arguments (Continued) begin-rescue, 206, 210

arrays and, 128 bin/ folders, 192–196
class style and, 189 Bitbucket.com, 80
in command line, 46–47 Boolean logic
in functions, 62–68, 75 overview of, 94–96
ARGV (argument variable) questions about, 96
introduction to, 46–48 Study Drills on, 96
opening les with, 52–54 true/false in, 92
prompting and passing with, 50–51 Branches
Arrays overview of, 116–119
2-dimensional, 108 questions about, 119
accessing elements of, 114–115 Study Drills on, 118
bucket, 140–142 Browsers
closing, 106–108 automated testing of forms and, 229–230
data structures and, 129–130 de ned, 225
hashes vs., 132–133, 144 HTML forms and, 226–228
levels of, 142–144 input from, generally, 224
loops and, 106–112 layout templates and, 228–229
opening, 106–108 questions about, 231
questions about, 108–109, 131 Study Drills on, 230–231
strings and, 128–129 web workings and, 224–226
Study Drills on, 108, 131 websites and, 220
when to use, 130–131, 143 Bucket arrays, 140–142
Asking questions of users
decision making and, 102–104 C
overview of, 42 cat (stream le) command, 285–286
questions about, 43 cd (change directory), 260–264
Study Drills on, 43 Chef Solo, 242
assert commands, 144, 217 Child classes, 179–186
Association, 133–136 chomp, 42–48
Asterisk args (*args), 63–65 Classes
Automated testing Child, 179–186
of forms, 229–230 creating, 148–149
guidelines for, 201 in game engine analysis, 167–169
introduction to, 198 hierarchies of, 167–168
questions about, 202 introduction to, 146–148
results of, 201 modules and, 148–149
Study Drills on, 202 nil and, 160–162
writing, 198–201 in object-oriented programming, generally,
146–151
B objects vs., 158
Backslash (\) characters, 38–40 Parent, 179–186
Before inheritance, 180–182 in phrases, 152–153
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 293 — #3

INDEX 293

style of, 189–190 Copy-pasting, 3

testing, 168–169 Correcting bad code, 88
close command, 56 cp (copy le) command, 277–281
Closing arrays with right bracket (]), 106–108
Command line tools D
ARGV. See ARGV (argument variable) Data structures, 129–130, 136
cat (stream le), 285–286 Data types, 124
cd (change directory), 260–264 Debugging games, 120–121
exit (exit terminal), 289–290 Decision making
in Linux. See Linux exercises in, 102–103
ls (list directory), 264–269 questions about, 103–104
in Mac OS X. See Mac OS X Study Drills on, 103
memorizing, 250 def (de ne function), 63, 152
mkdir (make directory), 257–259 delete, 141
mv (move le), 281 Designing games, 120–121
new-item (create empty le), 276–277 Details, signi cance of, 2
popd (return to saved location), Dictionaries, 132
273–276 Differences, signi cance of, 3
pushd (save location, go to new location), Directories. See Skeleton directories
273–276 Double equal (==) characters, 25,
pwd command, 254–256 92–96
references on, 290 Double quotes ("). See " (double quotes)
rm (remove le), 286–289 Drawing problems, 165–166
rmdir (remove directory), 269–272
setup for, 251 E
shells, 249 Ease of learning, 2–5
touch (create empty le), 276–277 Elements of arrays, access to, 114–115
viewing les with, 283–285 Eloquent Ruby, 242
for when lost, 256–257 else conditions
in Windows. See Windows elsif as. See elsif
Comments making decisions with, 102–104
## ?? 159–161 overview of, 100–101
in English, 18, 24, 33 questions about, 101
in game creation, 190–191 Study Drills on, 101
overview of, 18 elsif
questions about, 18–19 branches and, 116–117
Study Drills on, 18–19 de nition of, 123
Connections, de ned, 225 introduction to, 101
Copying les making decisions with, 102–104
cp for, 277–281 rules for, 120
overview of, 60–61 English
questions about, 61 comments in, 18, 24, 33
Study Drills on, 61 in object-oriented programming, 156
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 294 — #4

294 INDEX

Equality operators format strings and, 34–35

!= (not equal), 91–96 math operators and, 20–21
= (single equal). See = (equal) characters overview of, 90–92
== (double equal), 25, 92–96 File.exist?(to_file), 60–61
in Boolean logic, 95–96 Files
Errors copying, 60–61, 277–281
debugging games for, 120–121 creating empty, 276–277
exceptions as. See Exceptions functions and, 70–72
in if- statements, 100, 120
moving, 281
load, 17
opening, 52–58
name, 25
questions about, 71–72
ParserError, 213–216
reading, 52–58
in prompt variables, 51
reading backward, 24–26
rake test and, 201–202
removing, 286–289
reading messages about, 16
running, 13, 15
spelling, 37
syntax. See Syntax errors streaming, 285–286
tokens, 205 Study Drills on, 71
in unpacking variables, 47 viewing, 283–285
in website creation, 221–222 writing, 56–58
Escape sequences First programs
introduction to, 38 on Mac OS X, 12, 14
overview of, 38–39 overview of, 12
questions about, 40 questions about, 17
string, 124 Study Drills on, 16
Study Drills on, 40 on Windows, 13, 15
Evaluation Floating point numbers, 21
of game engines. See Game engine for-loop
analysis of games, 188–189, 191 exercises in, 106–108
object-oriented. See Object-oriented questions about, 108–109
analysis rules for, 120
Exceptions Study Drills on, 108
numbers and, 206
while-loop vs., 112
in sentences, 213
Format activators, 28, 35
symbols for, 122–123
Format strings
exit commands, 116–119, 289–290
= characters and, 34–37
Explicitly overriding inheritance, 180
overview of, 34
Extracting game concepts, 166. See also
printing, 34
Game engine analysis
questions about, 35
F Study Drills on, 35
f variable, 70–71 Forms
False automated tests for, 229–230
in Boolean logic, 95–96 HTML, 227–231
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 295 — #5

INDEX 295

layout templates for, 228 on text, 31

overview of, 226–227 on variables, 25–26, 47–48
Forward-slash ( / ), 38–40 on website creation, 223
Frequently asked questions on while-loop, 112
on # (pound) characters, 18–19 Functions
on advanced user input, 210 branches and, 115–119
on arrays, 108–109, 131 checklists for, 64, 70
on asking questions of users, 43 code and, 62–65
on automated testing, 202 def (de ne function) for, 152
on Boolean logic, 96 les and, 70–72
on branches, 119 in game creation, 189
on browsers, 231 importing and running, 84–86
on comments, 18–19 names and, 62–65
on copying les, 61 overview of, 62–64
on else conditions, 101 questions about, 65, 71–72, 76
on escape sequences, 40 Study Drills on, 64, 71, 75–76
on rst programs, 17 style of, 189
on format strings, 35 values and, 74–76
on functions, generally, 65 variables and, 62–68, 84–87
on functions, values from, 76
on functions and les, 71–72 G
on functions and variables, 67–68, 87 Game engine analysis. See also Games
on has-a phrases, 161–162 class hierarchies in, 167–168
on hashes, 144 coding classes in, 168
on if- statements, 99 extracting/researching concepts in, 166
on inheritance, 186–187 object maps in, 167–168
on is-a phrases, 161–162 re ning code in, 169–170
on for-loop, 108–109 testing classes in, 168–169
on making decisions, 103–104 top down versus bottom up approach to,
on math, 22 170–176
on memorizing logic, 92 writing/drawing problems in, 165–166
on names, 25–26 Game engines
on numbers, 22 analysis of. See Game engine analysis
on object-oriented analysis, 177 creation of, 238–240
on object-oriented programming, 151, 156 refactoring of, 232–237
on practicing code, 83, 87 session-based, 238–241
on printing, 33, 37 Game lexicon
on prompting and passing, 51 exceptions in, 206
on reading and writing les, 54, 58 introduction to, 204
on sentences, 217 lexicon types in, 205
on skeleton directories, 195–196 numbers in, 206
on strings, 31 sentence breaks in, 204–205
on symbols, 127 writing scanners and, 205
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 296 — #6

296 INDEX

Games persistence in, 3–4

analysis of engines for. See Game engine practice in, 3
analysis reading/writing Ruby in, 2
arrays in, 129–131 warnings for programmers in, 4–5
branches in, 116–119 has-a phrases
class style in, 189–190 introduction to, 158–159
code style in, 190 overview of, 159–161
comments in, 190–191 questions about, 161–162
debugging, 120–121 Study Drills on, 161
designing, 120–121 Hashes
engines for. See Game engines arrays and, 132–133, 142–144
evaluating, 188–189, 191 code description for, 140–142
function style in, 189 as data structures, 136
functions in, generally, 116–119 exercises in, 133–136
introduction to, 188 hash_key, 141
lexicon in. See Game lexicon introduction to, 132–133
user input in. See Advanced user input modules and, 136–139, 146–148
on the web. See Web games questions about, 144
gedit text editor Study Drills on, 143–144
setup and, 8–9, 11 when to use, 143
viewing les in, 283 ”Hello World” project, 219–220. See also
gem, 218–219 Websites
get commands, 141 HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
gets.chomp forms in, 225–231
asking questions of users with, 42–48 session-based game engines in, 238–241
opening les with, 52–54 websites created in, 222–223
prompting and passing with, 50–51
Github.com, 80 I
Gitorious.org, 80 Idiomatic Ruby, 11
Global variables, 68 if- statements
Google, 10 arrays and, 106
”Gothons from Planet Percal #25,” 170–176 else conditions and, 100–101
Grammar, 213 exercises in, 98–99
making decisions with, 102–104
H questions about, 99
Handlers, 222–223, 227 rules for, 120
Hard coding, 52 Study Drills on, 99
Hard way overview Implicit inheritance, 179
copy-pasting vs., 3 Increment by (+=) operators, 71–72, 99
details, signi cance of, 2 Index.GET, 221–224
differences, signi cance of, 3 Inheritance
ease of learning in, 2 altering before/after, 180–182
instructional videos, 3 combining types of, 182–183
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 297 — #7

INDEX 297

composition vs., 183–186 Linux

de nition of, 178–179 cat (stream le) in, 285
implicit, 179 cd (change directory) in, 260–261
introduction to, 178 command line tools in, 252–253
overriding explicitly, 180 cp (copy le) in, 277–278
questions about, 186–187 exit (exit terminal) in, 289
Study Drills on, 186 less command in, 284
super() with initialize, 183 ls (list directory) in, 265
when to use, 185–186 mkdir (make directory) in, 257
initialize, 183 mv (move le) in, 281
Input methods, 42–47 popd (return to saved location) in,
Instantiating classes, 148–149 273–274
Instructional videos, 3 pushd (save location, go to new location)
Integer() functions, 206 in, 273–274
Intended readers, 4 pwd command in, 255
International programming, 16 rm (remove le) in, 286–287
Internet rmdir (remove directory) in, 270
browsers and. See Browsers setup on, 8–10
games on. See Web games Terminal setup in, 251
searching, 10 touch (create empty le) in, 276–277
Irb interpreter, 53–54, 85–86 Lisp, 5
is-a phrases list, 141
exercises in, 159–161 List directory (ls), 264–269
introduction to, 158–159 Localhost, 220–225
questions about, 161–162 Loops
Study Drills on, 161 arrays and, 106–112
for-loop, 106–108, 112, 120
K while-loop, 110–112, 120, 169
Keywords, 122–123 ls (list directory), 264–269

L M
Launchpad.net, 80 Mac OS X
Layout templates, 228–229 cat (stream le) in, 285
Learn C the Hard Way, 242 cd (change directory) in, 260–261
Learn Python the Hard Way, command line tools in, generally, 252–253
4, 242 cp (copy le) in, 277–278
Learn Ruby the Hard Way, 3–4 exit (exit terminal) in, 289
Learning programming languages, 243–244 rst programs on, 12, 14
Learning Ruby, overview. See Hard way less command in, 284
overview ls (list directory) in, 265
Left bracket ([), opening arrays with, mkdir (make directory) in, 257
106–108 mv (move le) in, 281
Lexicon. See Game lexicon popd (return to saved location) in, 273–274
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 298 — #8

298 INDEX

Mac OS X (Continued) new-item (create empty le) command,

pushd (save location, go to new location) 276–277
in, 273–274 nil
pwd command in, 255 classes and, 160–162
rmdir (remove directory) in, 270 as data type, 124
running les on, 14 hashes and, 132–139
setup on, 6–7 Not (!) expressions, 91–96
Terminal setup in, 251 Not equal (!=) characters, 91–96
touch (create empty le) in, 276–277 Notepad++
Make directory (mkdir), 257–259 rst programs in, 13
Mapping setup and, 7
of hashes, 133–136 viewing les in, 283
of objects, 167–168 Numbers. See also Math
in refactoring, 232–237 in game lexicon, 206
Match and peek, 212–213 overview of, 20–21
Math. See also Numbers questions about, 22
algorithms for data structures, 140 Study Drills on, 21
overview of, 20–21
questions about, 22 O
Study Drills on, 21 Object maps, 167–168
Mechanize, 242 Object scope (@), 125
Memorization Object-oriented analysis
of characters, 78 introduction to, 164–165
of command line tools, 250 questions about, 177
of logic, 90–92 of simple game engines. See Game engine
of truth tables, 91–92 analysis
of truth terms, 90–91 Study Drills on, 176–177
mkdir (make directory), 257–259 top down versus bottom up approach in,
Modules 170–176
classes and, 148 Object-oriented programming (OOP)
hashes and, 136–139, 146–148 analysis in. See Object-oriented analysis
in object-oriented programming, generally, classes in, 148–149
146–151 english option in, 156
Modulus (%) operators, 22, 35 examples of, 150–151
mv (move le) command, 281 exercises in, 152
getting things from things in, 150
N hashes in, 146–148
Names introduction to, 148–149
functions and, 62–65 modules in, 146–149
overview of, 24–25 objects in, 148–149
questions about, 25–26 phrase drills for, 152–153
Study Drills on, 25 questions about, 151, 156
new (create initializer) command, 140 reading code in, 153–156
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 299 — #9

INDEX 299

require in, 148–149 Practicing code

Study Drills on, 151 exercises in, 82–86
word drills for, 152 importance of, 3
Objects questions about, 83, 87
@ for, 125 Study Drills on, 83, 87
classes vs., 158–161 Printing
instantiating, 148–149 format strings, 34–35
maps of, 167–168 practice exercises in, 32–33, 36–37
in object-oriented programming, generally, print for, 42
146–151 print_ two for, 62
require and, 148–149 pwd (print working directory) for, 254–256
Octothorpe, 18–19 questions about, 33, 37
OED (Oxford English Dictionary), 136 Study Drills on, 33, 37
OOP (object-oriented programming). See variables, 28–29
Object-oriented programming (OOP) Programmers
open(filename), 52–58 advice for, 246–247
Opening arrays with left bracket ([), 106–108 bad versus good, 86
Operators, de ned, 125. See also speci c details, signi cance of, 2
operators differences, signi cance of, 3
Or (||) expressions, 91–96
warnings for, 4–5
Overriding inheritance, 180
Programming languages, 243–244
Oxford English Dictionary (OED), 136
Project skeleton directories. See Skeleton
directories
P
Prompting
Padrino, 242
> for, 50–51
Parameters, 46–47
for numbers, 44
Parent classes, 179–186
passing and, 50–51
Parentheses Exponents Multiplication Division
questions about, 51
Addition Subtraction (PEMDAS), 22
Study Drills on, 44, 51
Parsers, 213–216
pushd (save location, go to new location),
PEMDAS (Parentheses Exponents
273–276
Multiplication Division Addition
puts command
Subtraction), 22
comments and, 18–19
Persistence, 3–4
format strings and, 34–36
Phrase drills, 152–153
introduction to, 12–13
popd (return to saved location), 273–276
math symbols and, 20–21
Port 8080, 219–223
strings and, 30–32
Pound (#) characters, See # (pound) characters
PowerShell pwd (print working directory), 254–256
rst programs in, 15–16
references on, 290 Q
running les in, 15 Questions asked by students. See Frequently
setup and, 6–8 asked questions
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 300 — #10

300 INDEX

Questions asked of users. See Asking questions learning, generally. See Hard way overview
of users setting up, 6–11
Ruby on Rails, 242
R RubyMotion, 242
rake test Ruby-Processing, 242
automated testing with, 199–202 Rules
setting up, 194 for if- statements, 120
syntax errors in, 202 for for-loop, 120
websites and, 230, 232 for while-loop, 120
Rakefile, 193–194, 199–202 Running les, 13, 15
.rb suf x, 12
Reading code S
for les. See Reading les Save location, go to new location (pushd),
in object-oriented programming, 153–156 273–276
resources for, 80–81 Scanners, 205
in Ruby, generally, 2 Searching Internet, 10
symbols in, 126 Sentences
Reading les breaks in, 204–205
backward, 24–26 creating, generally, 212
exercises in, 52–53, 56–57 exceptions in, 213
questions about, 54, 58 grammar in, 213
read command for, 56 match and peek in, 212–213
readline command for, 56 parsers in, 213–216
Study Drills on, 53, 57–58 questions about, 217
Refactoring game engines, 232–237 Study Drills on, 217
References, 242, 290 testing of, 217
Re ning code, 169–170 Servers, de ned, 226
Remove directory (rmdir), 269–272 Session-based game engines, 238–241
Remove le (rm), 286–289 Sessions, 237–238
Requests, de ned, 225–226 set, 141–142
require, 148–149 Setup
Researching game concepts, 166. See also for command line tools, 251
Game engine analysis generally, 6
Responses, de ned, 226 Internet searches for, 10
Return to saved location (popd), 273–276 on Linux, 8–10
Right bracket (]), closing arrays with, on Mac OS X, 6–7
106–108 warnings about, 10–11
rm (remove le), 286–289 on Windows, 7–8
rmdir (remove directory), 269–272 Shells, 249
Room class, 232–237 Sinatra
Ruby, introduction to browser interactions with, 220
rst programs in, 12–17 errors in, 221–222
idiomatic Ruby, 11 ”Hello World” project in, 219–220
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 301 — #11

INDEX 301

installing, 218–219 on functions, generally, 64

stopping/reloading, 221 on functions and les, 71
templates in, 222–223 on functions and values, 75–76
Single equal (=) characters. See = (equal) on functions and variables, 67, 87
characters on has-a phrases, 161
Skeleton directories on hashes, 143–144
creating, 192–193 on if- statements, 99
nal structure of, 193–194 on inheritance, 186
introduction to, 192 on is-a phrases, 161
questions about, 195–196 on for-loop, 108
quiz on, 195 on making decisions, 103
testing setup of, 194 on math, 21
using, 195 on names, 25
Sourceforge.net, 80 on numbers, 21
Stateless sessions, 237 on object-oriented analysis,
Stream le (cat) command, 285–286 176–177
String escape sequences, 124. See also Escape on object-oriented programming, 151
sequences on practicing code, 83, 87
Strings on printing, 29, 33, 37
arrays and, 128–129 on prompting and passing, 51
escape sequences and, 38 on prompting for numbers, 44
format, 34–35 on reading les, 53, 57–58
questions about, 31 on sentences, 217
Study Drills on, 31 on strings, 31
text and, 30–31 on symbols, 126–127
variables and, 28–29 on text, 31
Student questions. See Frequently asked on variables, 25, 29, 47
questions on website creation, 223
Study Drills on while-loop, 112
on # characters, 18–19 on writing les, 57–58
on accessing elements of arrays, 115 Style, 189–190
on advanced user input, 209 sudo gem install, 218–221, 229
on arrays, 108, 131 super() with initialize, 183
on asking questions of users, 43 super(name), 160–162
on automated testing, 202 Symbols. See also speci c symbols
on Boolean logic, 96 data types, 124
on branches, 118 introduction to, 122
on browsers, 230–231 keywords, 122–123
on comments, 18–19 operators, 125
on copying les, 61 questions about, 127
on else conditions, 101 reading code and, 126
on escape sequences, 40 string escape sequences, 124
on rst programs, 16 Study Drills on, 126–127
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 302 — #12

302 INDEX

Syntax errors Tracking sessions/users, 237–238

branches and, 118 Triple quotes (" " "), 37–38
de ned, 16 True
in if- statements, 100 format strings and, 34–35
rake test and, 202 math operators and, 20–21
strings and, 31
T truncate command, 56–58
Templates, 222–223, 228–229 Truth tables, 91–92
Terminal Truth terms, 90–91
Boolean logic in, 94 txt = open(filename), 52–54
rst programs in, 13–16 Typing, importance of, 2
running les in, 14
setup and, 6–11 U
Testing Underscore (_) characters, 24
automated. See Automated testing UNIX Bash, 290
classes, in game engine analysis, Unpacking arguments/variables, 44,
168–169 46–48
correcting bad code and, 88 Upgrades, 240–241
procedures for, 207–209 URLs, 220–225
rake for. See rake test Users
in sentence creation, 217 asking questions of, 42–43, 102–104
of skeleton directory setup, 194 input of. See Advanced user input
user input and, 206–209 tracking, 237–238
Text
questions about, 31 V
strings and, 30–31 Values, 74–76, 121
Study Drills on, 31 Variables
Text editors ARGV. See ARGV (argument variable)
creating, 56–58 f, 70–71
gedit, 8–11, 283 functions and, 62–68, 84–87
Notepad++ as. See Notepad++ global, 68
running les on, 12–17 naming, 24–26
setting up, 6–11 overview of, 24–25
Terminal as. See Terminal passing to scripts, 46–47
TextWrangler as. See TextWrangler printing, 28–29
TextWrangler questions about, 25–26, 47–48,
rst programs in, 12 67–68
setup and, 6, 11 setting to numbers, 44–45
viewing les in, 283 setting to strings, 30–33
Thor, 242 strings and, 28–33
Top down versus bottom up analysis, 170–176. Study Drills on, 25, 47, 67
See also Object-oriented analysis Videos, 3
touch (create empty le) command, 276–277 Viewing les, 283–285
 “Shaw_Index” — 2014/11/8 — 17:18 — page 303 — #13

INDEX 303

W command line tools in, 253–254

'w,' 56–61 cp (copy le) in, 278–280
Warnings, 4–5, 10–11 exit (exit terminal) in, 285–286
Web games rst programs on, 13, 15
engine creation for, 238–240 ls (list directory) in, 265–269
introduction to, 232 mkdir (make directory) in, 258–259
refactoring engines for, 232–237 more command in, 284
sessions in, 237–238 mv (move le) in, 281–283
tracking users in, 237–238 new-item (create empty le) in,
upgrades to, 240–241 276–277
Websites popd (return to saved location), 274–275
browsers and. See Browsers PowerShell setup in, 252
creating, generally, 218 pushd (save location, go to new location),
error repair in, 221–222 274–275
”Hello World” project, 219–220 pwd command in, 255
questions about, 223 rm (remove le) in, 287–288
Sinatra for, installing, 218–219 rmdir (remove directory) in, 271–272
Sinatra for, stopping/reloading, 221 running les on, 15
Study Drills on, 223 setup on, 7–8
template creation in, 222–223
Word drills, 152
The Well-Grounded Rubyist, 242
Writing les
while true, 116–119
exercises in, 56–57
while-loop
questions about, 58
exercises in, 110–112
Study Drills on, 57–58
in game creation, 169
write('stuff') command for, 56
for-loop vs., 112
Writing problems, 165–166
questions about, 112
Writing scanners, 205
rules for, 120
Writing skills, importance of, 2
Study Drills on, 112
Windows
cat (stream le) in, 285–286 Z
cd (change directory) in, 261–263 Zen koans, 158
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