From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2007-07-16T14:43:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Technology solutions for Ruby?

Michael Reiland wrote:
> I'm contemplating writing an application in Ruby but in order to do so I
> have some requirements that I hope everyone can help me out with.
> 
> This is for a primarily windows application, however I'd like to keep
> the door open for Mac/Linux.
> 
> 
> 1. GUI - Native Look and Feel.  According to wxRuby the bindings aren't
> mature enough for production use.  Does anyone have any experience with
> this and/or can you offer alternatives that provide a native look and
> feel (I

Forget native look and feel -- go for *quality* look and feel. I'd
recommend Qt4-qtruby for that. It just looks better than any other
toolkit, and it's extraordinarily well documented.

> 
> 2. Databases - contemplating using ActiveRecord, but I would like to use
> ODBC to support multiple types of DB's in a uniform way (if you know of
> alternatives to ODBC or ActiveRecord, please let me know).
unixODBC is a pain in the ass to work with ... there are very few
free-as-in-freedom drivers. I'd go with ActiveRecord, since it binds to
Oracle, MS SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite. It's probably not all that
difficult to extend it to other databases.
> 
> 3. Binary - Are there any utilities for compiling Ruby into a binary
> executable?  The issue is twofold, speed, and not handing the customer
> the source :)
The closest thing is the Zen Obfuscator, I think.

> 
> 
> I have no experience with developing/deploying Ruby in a
> "shrinkwrapped-esque" environment and would appreciate input from those
> with more experience.

Do you have experience developing *anything* in a shrinkwrapped-esque
environment? Especially Perl, because I think you'll find the
ActiveState Perl tools are quite good for this, and Perl will do
everything Ruby can do -- except be Ruby, of course. :) I won't stand in
your way if you want to do this in Ruby.
>