Nice set of answers.

May I add something concerning ruby itself. Ruby specifically appeals to perl users. It delivers to them what perl 6 was not able to in terms of "new programming paradims". I have tried perl and stopped within a month. Never appealead to me because of the coding style. But as they say within the "open source" communities, if "it fits your brain better", just use it. It's free:)

If you are a VFP and want something that would match a fox programming style I recommend you try python. It's much easier from a VFP perspective... Should you wish to try an equivalent to "ruby on rails" within the python arena, there is a host of choices as well:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/WebProgramming

and on web frameworks more specifically:

http://wiki.python.org/moin/WebFrameworks

Remember that google is a significant python shop. Guido Van Rossum (python benevolent dictator) is at google. Not a faint reference!