I started learning Ruby on Rails and found myself confounded by the syntax, so I had to read about somet of the Ruby syntax. I learned the syntax from http://www.cs.auckland
The documentation you are reading is ancient -- practically prehistoric. If it were possible for web pages to gather dust, that one would have a thick layer.
Try the reference material at the ruby-lang website. Also, the Programming Ruby (pickaxe) book is an essential reference.