From: Jim Clark <diegoslice@...>
Date: 2007-02-16T13:54:59+09:00
Subject: Re: what can i do with Ruby??

jazzy wrote:
> I have a visual basic 6 program I made which stores databases and
> allows the user to input data and get calculations from day to day. It
> uses dao. There a many different windows that come up to input various
> preferences and data calculations.
>
> Can I build such a program with Ruby or is Ruby more for dos based
> systems or for only web development?
>   
Yes you can build such a system. In the same way that Visual Basic is 
used in many different settings (stand alone programs, VB Script, web 
site back ends, etc.), Ruby can do these same things. There are GUI 
toolkits for Ruby (Tk, Fox / FXRuby, wxRuby, GTK, and Qt to name a few) 
for stand alone development, database drivers to connect with whatever 
database you prefer, frameworks like Rails for web development, and a 
large variety of well tested libraries / gems that can be used to speed 
development on all kinds of projects. In addition, since everything is 
an object in Ruby, you can do some really interesting things that would 
take much more effort in VB.
> I guess I just really don't understand what all Ruby is for.
>   
Take a look in the archives for this list, and specifically at some of 
the Ruby Quizzes, to see how powerful Ruby can be.

HTH,
Jim