From: Chris Thomas <cjack@...>
Date: 2002-01-22T04:06:56+09:00
Subject: Re: RANT: Ruby GUI API

On 1/21/02 10:08 AM, "MENON Jean-Francois" <Jean-Francois.MENON@meteo.fr>
wrote:

> 2) The better thing I would like for Ruby, is to have its own GUI,
> developped in Ruby, based on a low-level graphic library, like JAVA2
> did. So you need only to distribute a low-level C lib adapted for each
> system.

The problem with this approach is that your applications don't look like
native applications on each platform, and there's no way to make them behave
exactly like native applications, even assuming you are willing to do the
work. A Java Swing app can look a lot like a real Mac OS X application, but
it will never feel like one.

I would rather see something like SWT, which is what the Java AWT (Awful
Window Toolkit) should have been:

> SWT is the software component that delivers native widget functionality for
> the Eclipse platform in an operating system independent manner. It is
> analogous to AWT/Swing in Java with a difference - SWT uses native widgets.
> This article is the first in series of articles that discuss the SWT widget
> toolkit. This article discusses the low level implementation techniques used
> to implement SWT on different platforms. Examples are drawn from the windows
> and Motif implementations.

http://www.eclipse.org/articles/Article-SWT-Design-1/SWT-Design-1.html

I am not convinced that SWT's design is proven WRT cross-platform viability
(I don't think Motif and Win32 are different enough to constitute such
proof), but I do think this approach can work. It would have the benefit of
giving us a pure Ruby framework while preserving the underlying feel of the
platform.

Chris