Sending a series of keystrokes to the terminal. (CentOS)

Hi there, I'm just trying to automate a process. We use a command line tool which is navigated by keystrokes (no mouse).

I was hoping to create a ruby script to send the required keystrokes to that tool, and am asking for your help on how to do that basic thing.

It's easy enough to start the program; system 'programName', but after that the script is hung until you exit the program.

I suspect the answer is something like 'create a new thread and send the keys' but I'm not sure how to do that.

thanks for any help you can provide