Ruby is definitely strongly perl based (cross-bred most noticeably with smalltalk). From http://linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2001/11/29/ruby.html http://linu

Ruby is definitely strongly perl based (cross-bred most noticeably with smalltalk). From http://linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2001/11/29/ruby.html http://linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2001/11/29/ruby.html: Stewart: I gather you had worked with both Perl and Python before creating Ruby. What bits of Perl did you incorporate in Ruby? Matz: A lot. Ruby's class library is an object-oriented reorganization of Perl functionality--plus some Smalltalk and Lisp stuff. I used too much I guess. I shouldn't have inherited $_, $&, and the other, ugly style variables.