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What is the meaning of *nix, and what is its relation with Ruby?
Just saw that in an interview question... I think there is something to do with UNIX distros, but I am not sure.
Could not find it here or in the Wikipedia, so I am asking.
What is the meaning ?
And what is its relation with Ruby ? because the question was about Ruby.
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: to refuse to accept or allow (something) : veto, reject The court nixed the merger.
If you nix something, you cancel or veto it. You might nix your little sister's plan to build a fire pit in the middle of the front yard. In North America, to nix something is to forbid or put an end to it.
Nix is most commonly used as a verb. Close synonyms of this sense are veto, deny, reject, and refuse.
Definition of nix no1 (def. 1). (used as an exclamation, especially of warning): Nix, the cops! to veto; refuse to agree to; prohibit: to nix the project.
*nix just means operating systems that are like the old workhorse Unix. Some examples include Linux, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X (its kernel, Darwin, is based on BSD).
The main relation between *nix and Ruby is just a pragmatic one; most Ruby developers seem to prefer to work on Unix-like OSes (typically Linux or Mac OS X). There's no official relationship, and it's quite possible to work with Ruby on non-*nix OSes like Windows.
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*nix means UNIX-like; it is an operating system that behaves in a manner similar to that of a UNIX operating system without necessarily conforming to the Single UNIX Specification.
Wikipedia:*nix actually redirects to Wikipedia:Unix-like.
As for Ruby's connection to *nix, Ruby was developed mostly on GNU/Linux by the open-source community, so it may be something to do with Ruby running better on *nix systems or Ruby developers preferring to work on *nix systems.
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