From: "Horacio López" <vruz@...>
Date: 2002-01-22T08:58:06+09:00
Subject: Re: RANT: Ruby GUI API

[massive *snip*]

> > maybe the upcoming Gtk 2.0 would be worth considering because AFAIK it
> > supports all the stuff I mentioned above.
> > just my thoughts
> I do agree on each point.
> Is this the right place for a vote on this issue? Just to know what the
folks
> want?
> cix

I also agree, I am in charge of the I18N subproject in FreeRIDE, and
we haven't been able to agree on a GUI toolkit that can satisfy every
need, yet be portable.

This kind of approaches to GUI seem to end up like Java AWT,
a minimum common set of features equally supported by the
different systems.
According to Sun, AWT means Abstract Widget Toolkit, but many java
programmers in the world know the A stands for Abominable, Awful,
Awkward,  a toolkit that looks and feels equally awful in every
platform.  (paraphrasing Java in a Nutshell)

What did they have to do to fix AWT ?
Sun and Netscape developed Swing,  they ended up coding
the a full blown GUI toolkit of their own.

Microsoft is speaking now of the "universal canvas", something
that you can use to draw on the screen, in any platform !!
Too much wheel reinvention....
Too much effort duplication...


What you don't resolve at framework level, you have to do it
at application level.
In FreeRID we have picked the Fox toolkit *for now*, and we will have
to provide some abstraction layer that allows us to make the GUI an
interchangeable plug-in.

We already have a minumum common GUI toolkit, and that's TK.
When we have more than one toolkit that supports all the
"high-end" features, we can start to think of some GUI abstraction
layer that doesn't mimic AWT.

cheers,
                   vruz