From: "Brandon B." <scorpionl13@...>
Date: 2009-11-15T04:45:48+09:00
Subject: Re: Customized GUI

> Knowing some Swing certainly helps; Monkeybars is not really meant to
> *hide* Swing, but that's part of its strength.  Anything you can do in
> Swing you can do in Monkeybars.  Sometimes it's easy (e.g. setting up
> buttons and text fields) sometimes not ( various table controls, for
> example, that are freakishly complex in that special Java way).

not even sure what swing is...    i dont mind learning new things, i 
just dont know what to learn to get what i want to get done.  i think i 
am gonna look up swing though... sounds like it could be useful to know.

> I started Neurogami::SwingSet to wrap common Swing items to reduce (and
> ideally eliminate) the need for Swing knowledge, so you can get a fair
> amount done using a plain text editor and no concern for Swing innards.
>
> In actual practice, though, while I mostly use SwingSet for basic forms
> (Help, About, or anything that is a simple grid of basic components) I
> find that  sophisticated layouts and screens works best when done using
> a GUI editor and occasionally some manual Swing-based code to make
> things Just So.

gui editors are a big help, and i have used Fox and GTK. i have looked 
through the libraries and examples that i can find and i just cant seem 
to get what i want done using them.  almost makes me feel like i just 
wasted alot of time learning something that wont help. even though i 
know that to be false.

> When picking a GUI toolkit there is often trade-off between what the
> code does for you and what the code allows you.
> 
> I'm pretty sure all of the more robust GUI toolkits expect you to know
> the APIs for the numerous widgets, so Monkeybars is no different in that
> way.
> 
> For example, Shoes and Limelight make certain things stupid easy, but
> you have a small set of pre-defined widgets to use.   If those are all
> you are going to need (and the toolkits meet your packaging and
> distribution requirements), then you win.
> 
> If you go for Ruby bindings for GTK or Wx (or any of the robust JRuby
> Swing frameworks)  you get far more options, but an increase in
> complexity and a need to learn some widget APIs.  The win comes from the
> greater sophistication possible in your applications.
> 
> The bottom line is that anyone looking for a Ruby GUI toolkit should not
> be put off by the idea of maybe having to learn and use something not
> strictly Ruby.  That's  shortsighted.\

i dont mean to sound shortsighted, and yes i do agree, i actually want 
to learn alot of the languages, C++, Java, ruby, PHP, HTML. i love to 
program. i just get stuck into one goal that shouldnt be too hard to 
make happen and...  well... i cant get it done.  frustrating to say the 
least. gotta love programming....

like i said, i dont have a problem with learning new things, i just dont 
know what to learn, i feel like a kid in a candy store trying to figure 
out what he wants.....
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