I want to make a window manager in either of these languages (Preferably ruby). I honestly have no idea where to start except that I will need some kind of X module to load. So if anyone has a clue it would be great if you could point me in the right direction. Thanks
XCB, the next gen API for X uses an XML format to define X protocols and generates specific language bindings with a script. It's similar in concept to SWIG except that instead of describing C APIs, it describes X protocols.
Currently, bindings exist for C and Python. A Ruby port would theoretically be only a matter of writing a translator from the XML protocol definition language to Ruby. The generated Ruby code could either wrap the C API or implement the wire protocol in pure Ruby (I recommend the latter).
The API apparently has some inherent advantages over the legacy Xlib related to blocking I/O. It also has a Windows port, oddly enough.