Ruby is an open source interpreted object-oriented programming language created by Yukihiro Matsumoto who chose the gemstone's name to suggest a jewel of a language. Ruby is designed to be simple complete extensible and portable. Developed mostly on Linux Ruby works across most platforms such as most UNIX-based platforms DOS Windows Macintosh BeOS and OS/2 for example. According to proponents Ruby's simple syntax (partially inspired by Ada and Eiffel) makes it readable by anyone who is familiar with any modern programming language.