From: Lothar Scholz Date: 2005-08-11T00:29:37+09:00 Subject: Re: FXRuby or wxRuby? Hello david, >> FOX 2.0 will have theming. There is a patched FOX version out there >> (search the mailing list) which already uses the windows theming API and >> looks as native as you want it. Unfortunately you can't link this >> together with FXRuby. dvn> I still have personal issues about reinventing the wheel. With synthethised dvn> widget toolkits, you still usually go off and re-do the logic of applying the dvn> theme on each OS. Or maybe not, I'm not going to pretend I've ever seen GUI dvn> toolkit code here. dvn> Still, the discussion was which of two toolkits to use, and I think it is very dvn> unlikely a synthetised widget toolkit can by definition "get things right" dvn> sooner or more completely than a native one, and there's always a quirk lurking dvn> behind the corner. Correct. The question is: do you want a multiplattform toolkit ? If not then the answer is almost always the native toolkit (i guess it's vruby in this case). Otherwise it depends on your target audience and your required features. With wxwidgets you easily get into platform specific problems that you can for example avoid with a synthetised one. If you need exact match of look and feel, for example for MacOSX programs for the average user, you don't have any chance to use anything other then carbon/cocoa. >> Right. But if the target audience are also technical people the different >> FOX look is not so important. In times of skins, web applications and >> dozens different GUI themes, the consistence look is not so important >> anymore. dvn> Skinning and theming is more of an issue for the OS, or window manager if you dvn> wish, and having your application apply its own settings is not really an dvn> advantage. Correct, this only applies to Windows. On MacOSX you simply don't have themes only Aqua (in a blue or grey flavour). On Linux there are so many and so many different desktops and window manager that it makes no sense to talk about this, at least if you don't market the application as Gnome or KDE application. Only on Windows you have a standarized theming API with multiple different looking themes. dvn> Strange I never hear the argument about L&F consistency not being important from dvn> any end users. I never heard it from any of the Arachno Ruby users. Instead they request application level consistency, which means i want your application to behave like IntelliJ, Eclipse, Emacs, VI etc. A friend of mine is responsible for a CD burning program, and you know what he here from end users: Why don't you make it L&F like Nero. -- Best regards, emailto: scholz at scriptolutions dot com Lothar Scholz http://www.ruby-ide.com CTO Scriptolutions Ruby, PHP, Python IDE 's