From: "Carlo E. Prelz" Date: 2013-02-12T00:47:20+09:00 Subject: Re: The "ruby way" to do desktop applications? Subject: Re: The "ruby way" to do desktop applications? Date: mar 12 feb 13 12:29:45 +0900 Quoting guirec c. (lists@ruby-forum.com): > For exemple, I want to create an application to manage a small business. > I want to store contacts, products and bills. I need a simple interface. > Nothing very complicated but I need a clean and pretty interface. I can > build it with Swing, in Java. > > In this case which tool can I use? Is it better to build a local web > application? This is a bit of a weak point in Ruby. The GUI that has been included in Ruby from the beginning is Tcl/TK. One tutorial is this: http://rubylearning.com/satishtalim/ruby_tk_tutorial.html Sadly, TK is a bit lame. It may be perfect for your application, but it is far from flashy. In the Linux world, two GUI libraries are mainly used: Gtk and QT. About QT I can't tell you much - it is in C++ and I do not like its esthetics, so I always kept clear. I know there are bindings for Ruby. Gtk has bindings in Ruby. They are maintained almost single-handedly by Kohei Sutou. He is a hero... Read more here: http://ruby-gnome2.sourceforge.jp/ I have used them for several projects. The learning curve is a bit steep, but the results are quite professional-looking. The only problem is that not too many people seem to adopt Gtk/Gnome anymore. If you look for a marketable skill, the investment in time may not prove too profitable. If you want to use Jruby, I believe you can use Swing from Ruby code. About that, too, I know nothing. If you use Macs, I believe you can use Cocoa from Macruby. See www.macruby.org. There are other choices, from what I remember, but none seem to be very popular. Carlo -- * Se la Strada e la sua Virtu' non fossero state messe da parte, * K * Carlo E. Prelz - fluido@fluido.as che bisogno ci sarebbe * di parlare tanto di amore e di rettitudine? (Chuang-Tzu)