From: James Britt <james.britt@...>
Date: 2008-09-10T15:33:18+09:00
Subject: Re: Is Ruby good at GUI develop?

Jason Cameron wrote:

> I must say I'm not totally happy with _any_ of the current offerings 
> that I've tried for a Ruby GUI(fxRuby, wxRuby, Shoes, Sugar).  I want a 
> form to open up and I want to be able to drop controls anywhere I want 
> on to it without having my eyes bleed.
> 
> I'd like to have a GUI builder (preferably on Linux, or will run the 
> built GUI on Linux) that's as easy as Microsoft Visu ... hey would you 
> guys stop throwing things ...please? ... anyway as easy as that.


NetBeans.  Built in GUI editor that Just Works.  Cross-platform.  Free. 
(It's also a decent Ruby editor as well.)

> 
> That being said... Monkeybars seems to be the easiest way for me to 
> build a GUI in Ruby thus far.  Hmmmm... I'll have to look at how 
> plug-ins are done in Netbeans... It may let me automate creating a 
> project with a form with Monkeybars.
> 
> I'm just a Linux newbie so I'll just get back to creating my rinky dinky 
> little apps in Ruby. :p  If someone ever does get around to writing a 
> decent GUI builder for Ruby I predict the flood doors would open and 
> you'd see everyone and their dog trying Ruby out.  Is that a good 
> things?... (shrug)

Why must the GUI builder be written in Ruby?    Monkeybars works with 
the resulting .class file(s) containing the Swing stuff; how that gets 
created is irrelevant.  (Note: yes, you can use Monkeybars with 
"builder"-style GUI-generating code as well, but that gets painful for 
anything non-trivial, even with Monkeybars.)

Use the best tool for the job.  Few people are insisting their text 
editor or IDE be written in Ruby (not to say that would be a bad thing, 
just misplaced focus).

There will be a Monkeybars talk at RubyConf 2008; I think it will knock 
people's socks off.  (Yes, I'm biased. But see for yourself.)


-- 
James Britt

www.happycamperstudios.com   - Wicked Cool Coding
www.jamesbritt.com           - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org             - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com            - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff