From: Martin Weber <Ephaeton@...>
Date: 2001-08-15T05:22:21+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:19733] Re: General (GUI/license) questions

On Tuesday 14 August 2001 22:10 you've wrote:
> Tk is nice for quick portable GUI's where niceness is not a priority.
> GTK is not really the way to go on Windows. The only Ruby binding I've seen
> that actually works well with windows is FxRuby. It's not exactly widely
> distributed I belive, but it is very easy to install which counts for a
> lot. I can't speak for the Unix side of the issue, but on Windows you just
> download it - and then it runs. A lot smaller than a fullblown Tck/tk
> download for windows. It runs out of the box like Tk does, but it is much
> nicer.

People often forget where Tcl/Tk started : Write a C program, hook into Tcl, 
provide your app with an interpreter, and write a Gui whose values you'd 
track into your C app. In a world of real shared libraries even a full blown 
tcl package Does Not Really Hurt, because you can incorporate some of the 
interesting features of its own lib into your program. Somehow it's strange 
that those many other 'scripting' languages feel to replace the tcl part in 
the tcl/tk relationship (perl, python, ruby), but, its use is not that 
convienient like it is in tcl (Hey! I like ruby! But working in ASICs right 
now, I have to say, even if there are 'better' scripting languages or even 
real gen purp languages than tcl it has its place out there, and I guess all 
but perl fanatists see that, too) because those languages feel like 
simulating a tcl part, but (I have to admit I did not bury myself in 
documentation) do not provide a real 'own' c-counterpart for it. If you 
really put some work into the tk part, you indeed can get nice results. Even 
as "nice" as is Gtk or Qt. Okay, still no round stuff, but if you really like 
you can get that too (no one says those widgets are Set In Stone). What would 
imho be much more interesting is something like, you say, FxRuby. As TK is 
rather a Pain In The Ass to use on Ruby (just my personal impression coming 
from tcl) a portable, own, slim toolkit would be nice (yes, it's maybe a 
major issue to do one ;p). It's not nice to have tons of toolkits installed 
just to have a gui with your programs, yes yes. But as tk is about the only 
thing that comes to my mind at sudden, which is portable across mac/win/unix, 
I wonder if there would not be a sense in such a package ...

Of course, on windows, how could you use the fun part in tcl, it's c-lib, 
when you have to fight just to get a somewhat grown-up c-api ;>

>
> Mikkel

Martin

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