and the available documentation not meeting my expectations.
Buy the Pickaxe book. It's well worth the money.
I spent some time using Ruby last year. Bought the Pickaxe too. Ruby is definitely a nice language, but it's problem is not just that it's lacking in docs, but that it's lacking in commitment to docs. The Pickaxe is a pretty good book, granted. But I got the impression that the core Ruby people just aren't all that committed to making sure they have great docs. It's just not a priority for them, and that's fine -- that's their choice. And it's understood that they've got a lot on their plate.
After spending a few months with Ruby, then coming back to Perl, one of the first things I immediately noticed was, "Wow, I almost forgot how darn *good* the Perl docs are." (the other thing I said to myself was, "Wow, I almost forgot how *vast* the CPAN is" -- but that's is beside the point, since Ruby is still young).
