From: Lyle Johnson <lyle@...>
Date: 2002-07-25T08:48:32+09:00
Subject: Re: FXRuby without the subclassing

Tom Sawyer wrote:
> is there a way to use FXRuby without subclassing from an FXObject? every
> example i've looked at has something like:
> 
> 	MyAppClass < FXMainWindow
> 
> is this neccessary?

I'm not sure I understand the question. FXRuby is a class library just 
like any other Ruby class library. If you just want to use the built-in 
classes you can do so, e.g.

     # Create a button
     myButton = FXButton.new(...)

but if you need a customized version of some widget, you might also 
choose to subclass it, e.g.

     class MySpecialButton < FXButton
       def initialize(p, buttonText, buttonIcon)
         # Initialize base class first
         super(p, buttonText, buttonIcon)
       end
     end

By convention, most FOX (and FXRuby) applications create an 
application-specific subclass of FXMainWindow, and this is what you'll 
see in a majority of the FXRuby example programs. But it's certainly not 
necessary to subclass FXMainWindow, especially for simple little GUIs; 
see, for example, the "hello.rb" and "hello2.rb" example programs, which 
don't do any subclassing.

> FYI - as a proof of concept i'm making GUtopIa plugable so you can tack
> on any GUI toolkit you like. i decide to start with Fox using FXRuby,
> even though GTK+ might have been easier, but obviosuly, i've run into
> the above problem. specifically i can't seem to get targeted messages to
> work.

I don't know what you mean by "I can't seem to get targeted messages to 
work". For most FOX widgets you can connect the widget's command message 
(SEL_COMMAND) directly to a Ruby code block, e.g.

     myButton = FXButton.new(parent, "Click Me!")
     myButton.connect(SEL_COMMAND) { puts "Call me Ishmael" }

Hope this helps,

Lyle