The main source for all things Ruby is http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/. A few specific pointers:
Implementations: The Ruby downloads page has general pointers. If you are a Windows user, the One-Click Installer has everything you need. If you are using OS X, the developer tools include Ruby. The versions included with the OS X 10.5 and 10.6 developer tools are fine. Linux users should just use their package manager to install the current version of Ruby (be sure to include the irb interactive environment).
Versions: Ruby 1.9 is the latest, but maybe not the greatest. Version 1.8.7 is the one that's most widely used and is the standard version on OS X and most Linux Distributions. We won't do much of anything where it should make a difference, but we will test homework code on 1.8.7 so it would be worth at least checking that your code works properly there.
Documentation: Start on the Ruby documentation page. There are various tutorials, manuals, and links to the class library documentation.
Books: The best tutorial and basic class library reference is Programming Ruby by Dave Thomas and others. That link points you to the current edition, which can be ordered either as a printed book or a pdf or both. There are a bunch of editions, available in print and electronic versions.
The creator of the language and a well-known coauthor have written The Ruby Programming Language (O'Reilly). This is a a great reference, but is biased towards Ruby 1.9. It has less tutorial material than the Thomas book. If you're a serious Ruby programmer you probably want this on your shelf (or read it online via the UW Library catalog links).
Finally, there is a good set of links from last spring's CSE 341 that are worth checking out.
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