1. [n]  a deep and vivid red
2. [n]  a transparent piece of ruby that has been cut and polished and is valued as a precious gem
3. [n]  a transparent deep red variety of corundum; used as a gemstone and in lasers
4. [adj]  having any of numerous bright or strong colors reminiscent of the color of blood or cherries or tomatoes or rubies

1. \Ru"by\, n.; pl. {Rubies}. [F. rubis (cf. Pr. robi), LL.
   rubinus, robinus, fr. L. rubeus red, reddish, akin to ruber.
   See {Rouge}, {red}.]
   1. (Min.) A precious stone of a carmine red color, sometimes
      verging to violet, or intermediate between carmine and
      hyacinth red. It is a red crystallized variety of
      corundum.
   
   Note: Besides the true or Oriental ruby above defined, there
         are the balas ruby, or ruby spinel, a red variety of
         spinel, and the rock ruby, a red variety of garnet.
   
   
   
      Of rubies, sapphires, and pearles white.    --Chaucer.
   
   2. The color of a ruby; carmine red; a red tint.
   
            The natural ruby of your cheeks.      --Shak.
   
   3. That which has the color of the ruby, as red wine. Hence,
      a red blain or carbuncle.
   
   4. (Print.) See {Agate}, n., 2. [Eng.]
   
   5. (Zo["o]l.) Any species of South American humming birds of
      the genus {Clytol[ae]ma}. The males have a ruby-colored
      throat or breast.
   
   {Ruby of arsenic}, {Ruby of sulphur} (Chem.), a glassy
      substance of a red color and a variable composition, but
      always consisting chiefly of the disulphide of arsenic; --
      called also {ruby sulphur}.
   
   {Ruby of zinc} (Min.), zinc sulphide; the mineral zinc blende
      or sphalerite.
   
   {Ruby silver} (Min.), red silver. See under {Red}.
   
   

2. \Ru"by\, a.
   Ruby-colored; red; as, ruby lips.
   
   

3. \Ru"by\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Rubied}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Rubying}.]
   To make red; to redden. [R.] --Pope.
   
   

1. A relational language designed by Jones and M. Sheeran in 1986 for describing and designing circuits (a hardware description language). Ruby programs denote binary relations and programs are built-up inductively from primitive relations using a pre-defined set of relational operators. Ruby programs also have a geometric interpretation as networks of primitive relations connected by wires, which is important when layout is considered in circuit design.

Ruby has been continually developed since 1986, and has been used to design many different kinds of circuits, including systolic arrays, butterfly networks and arithmetic circuits.

.

E-mail: <graham@cs.chalmers.se>.

["Ruby - A Language of Relations and Higher-Order Functions", M. Sheeran, Proc 3rd Banff Workshop on Hardware Verification, Springer 1990].

2. One of five pedagogical languages based on markov algorithms, used in Higman's report (below). The other languages are brilliant, diamond, nonpareil, and pearl.

["Nonpareil, a Machine Level Machine Independent Language for the Study of Semantics", B. Higman, ULICS Intl Report No ICSI 170, U London (1968)].

3. A fully object oriented interpreted scripting language by Yukihiro Matsumoto <matz@netlab.co.jp>.

Similar in scope to perl and python, Ruby has high-level data types, automatic memory management, dynamic typing, a module system, exceptions, and a rich standard library. Other features are clu-style iterators for loop abstraction, singleton classes/methods and lexical closures.

In Ruby, everything is an object, including the basic data types. For example, the number 1 is an instance of class Fixnum.

Current version (stable): 1.6.7, as of 2002-03-01.

ruby home.

ruby central.

["Programming Ruby - The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide", David Thomas, Andrew Hunt, Yukihiro Matsumoto pub. Addison Wesley 2000].

(Heb. peninim), only in plural (Lam. 4:7). The ruby was one of the stones in the high priest's breastplate (Ex. 28:17). A comparison is made between the value of wisdom and rubies (Job 28:18; Prov. 3:15; 8:11). The price of a virtuous woman is said to be "far above rubies" (Prov. 31:10). The exact meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain. Some render it "red coral;" others, "pearl" or "mother-of-pearl."