fr dave rose:
# oka...how does one do the above two hello world in ruby... and does 
# 1.8.2
# windoze one-click installer (v1.8.2.1) also install enough of 
# webbrick 
# to do this?
# what is 'required'....

webrick is good enough, but if you want cool and clean stuff, install nitro   http://www.nitroproject.org/; then simulate the sample demo at http://www.nitroproject.org/videos/nitro.html

the first part demo will include your hello world want. 

The needed lines are:

#--start hello world
require 'nitro'
class Hello
  def index
     'hello, world'
  end
end

Nitro.start Hello
#---end hello world

It just takes 30 seconds to demo it (including the typing :)

kind regards -botp