Guess a number, any number, between 1 and 10 I am learning Ruby and would like to know how I am doing as far as writing the actual code.  

Please keep in mind that this is my first Ruby script program, but I am trying to learn ruby in a very short period of time.

I would like to know about nitpicks in the language that every Ruby writer should now, nuances in syntax, and other Ruby specific ... things.

$randomNumber = rand(10) + 1

def guessRandomNumber   
    puts "Guess a number between 1 and 10"
    guess = gets
    if Integer(guess) == $randomNumber 
        puts "Right on, good guess"
    elsif Integer(guess) &lt; $randomNumber 
        puts "too low"
        puts "please, guess again"
        guessRandomNumber
    elsif Integer(guess) &gt; $randomNumber 
        puts "too high"
        puts "please, guess again"
        guessRandomNumber
    else
        puts "is that even a number? please, guess again"
        guessRandomNumber
    end
end

guessRandomNumber

puts "bye"
gets
Global variables

Don't use global variables(like $bar). It is always bad practice because you can mutate the global variable from anywhere. The alternative is:
RANDOM_NUMBER = rand(1..10), notice that you can pass range as an argument of rand. rand(10) + 1 can return 11 so it isn't correct.

Style

Huge percentage of the Ruby community follow the style guide and this
is the most popular one Ruby style guide.

Style issues: 


Use snake case for the names of methods and variables.
Use double quotes only if you use interpolation or special symbols like \n.


About the implementation

IMO will be more readable like this:  

def guess_random_number
  puts 'Guess a number between 1 and 10'

  random_number = rand(1..10)

  while random_number != (guess_number = gets.to_i)
    if guess_number &lt; random_number
      puts "too low \nplease, guess again"
    else
      puts "too high \nplease, guess again"
    end
  end

  puts "Right on, good guess \nbye"
end

guess_random_number


You see there is no need to expose the variable in the global scope.