I run this basic code in Ruby (on Windows): def hello () puts 'test' end hello and the Interpreter throws me this error: app.ru:1: syntax error, unexpected tIDENTIFIER, expecting $end hello puts 'test' It seems like Ruby is skipping lines? I've tried various encoding formats, other code and it still gives me an error similar to this. Why is it happening? EDIT The suggestions were to either use different editors or semi-colons to see if the lines were an issue. The version is also new - 1.9.3p327, so that shouldn't have been a problem. Parentheses aren't a problem either.