From: Mohit Sindhwani <mo_mail@...>
Date: 2007-09-23T13:45:57+09:00
Subject: Re: Getting started with Ruby (noob confusion)

7stud -- wrote:
> Nunya Business wrote:
>   
>> Anyhow, after realizing this, I went on a treasure hunt of sorts, for a
>> GUI toolkit. I've
>> selected foxGUIb for the job. According to the site, it requires FXRuby,
>> so I guess my first
>> question is, is FXRuby included in the current stable Ruby distro, or do
>> I need to download
>> it? 
>>
>>     
>
> If you want to avoid all that hassle, download and learn python.  It 
> comes with the relatively easy to learn Tkinter gui toolkit.
>
>   
>> As the title suggests, I'm new to Ruby (and programming in general), and
>> am feeling a bit
>> overwhelmed by the complexities. 
>> A few of the projects I have in mind:
>>
>> A snazzy, skinable web browser with ftp capabilities built-in (among
>> other things)
>> An instant messenger
>> Newsreader
>> Mail client
>>
>> As you can see, just very basic stuff.
>>
>>     
>
> lol.  Ok.
>
>
>   
>> PS Something I've been wondering for a while; need I be proficient in
>> math to develop the type
>> of apps I have in mind? I'm just horrible with numbers. I feel like this
>> particular weakness
>> may hamper my dreams of programming.
>>     
>
> Most programs require a facility with numbers.  Of course, you don't 
> need to understand calculus to read and write to a file.  Gui 
> programming is a more advanced topic in most languages, although some 
> toolkits make it relatively easy.
>   

Or you can try WideStudio that makes many things much easier for you.  
You can do drag-and-drop design for the GUI and set attributes in the 
tool itself for the basic stuff - like where to display a button, what 
text to put in it, etc.  Then, you can directly hook up which function 
to be called when someone clicks on the button.

more details at: www.widestudio.org

Cheers
Mohit.