From: Mohit Sindhwani Date: 2007-10-21T15:31:21+09:00 Subject: Re: Is Ruby For Me? Jay Levitt wrote: > On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:10:58 +0900, Tony De wrote: > > >> My question is this: Is ruby for me? >> > > I actually read in a book yesterday that it was specifically not for you. > > (No, I jest.) > > >> Moreover, can I develop >> traditional as well as database driven "GUI" apps such as I would in >> Delphi or Visual Studio for that matter? Or is it geared for a >> "Browser" based interface? >> > > There are not a large number of GUI-style Ruby apps today; it's not that > they can't be done, but that the interest just hasn't been there. Ruby > does support several GUI frameworks - Gtk, FOX, Qt3/Qt4, wxWindows, maybe > others. > > You won't find the integration of IDE, language, and GUI library in Ruby > (or any other language, really) that you're used to in Delphi; Delphi is a > self-contained system. > > Some languages, like C or C++, have tightly integrated IDEs (Visual Studio) > but require you to choose a graphics toolkit. Some, like Java, have a > tightly integrated IDE (IntelliJ, Eclipse) and a "standard" graphics > toolkit (Swing) but allow other toolkits (SWT). But Ruby, Python, Perl, > and other dynamic languages aren't tightly bound to any IDE or any graphics > toolkit; that's both an advantage (in flexibility) and a disadvantage (to > the novice programmer who just wants to write a GUI app). > > Ruby's definitely not geared toward the browser specifically; Rails > obviously is, but Rails is just a Ruby-based framework. You can, in fact, > do just about anything in Ruby that you can do in any other language, and > vice versa; whether Ruby makes it easier or harder than [your favorite > language here] is a matter of opinion and depends highly upon the specific > applications you want to write. > > As for IDEs, until fairly recently, there were no good choices. Many Ruby > programmers use TextMate or another text editor. In the past year or two, > support for Ruby has been added to Eclipse (via Aptana RadRails [free] or > 3rdRail [commercial]), IntelliJ, and the upcoming NetBeans 6 from Sun. > > Although it's not an IDE, WideStudio will give you the ability to create drag-and-drop GUI interfaces (like Delphi or Borland Builder) and will also let you use Ruby as the language that drives it (or C/C++, Java, Ocaml, Python...) Be aware that the documentation is a bit weak (unless you read Japanese) but the guy who created it is very responsive on the mailing list. That said, I haven't yet used it for much, so you'll need to evaluate it for yourself, I guess. By the way, has anyone here used WideStudio? It's cross-platform cross-language ability attracts me quite a bit (also since I experimented with it for some embedded systems targets). On the other hand, one of the things you should consider before you start is whether you're happy to let the source code of your application ship with what you create. I don't have a problem with this because my Ruby scripts are internal and my Rails applications are hosted. But, if you're doing product development, that's a concern that you must address. Lastly, think of what you're trying to achieve - what kind of things will your applications do? If it's largely database-driven stuff, I have a feeling that with pieces of Rails (and the many other modes/ frameworks for accessing databases that exist for Ruby), you'll be able to slap on a GUI frontend and get moving :) Hope this helps. Cheers, Mohit. 10/21/2007 | 2:31 PM.