From: Philip Mak <pmak@...>
Date: 2002-10-22T04:38:12+09:00
Subject: Unicode GUIs on Windows

For anyone who's interested in developing GUIs that use Unicode, I'm
translating a post I made to the Japanese ruby mailing list just now.

> I want to make a GUI program that writes Japanese characters. Which
> GUI toolkit (FXRuby, Tk, FLTK, etc.) should I use?

I tried various GUI toolkits. My conclusions:

FOX: Has no Unicode support.

FLTK: Unicode support is bad. For example, if there is Unicode text in
a Fltk::Input field, the cursor positioning is incorrect.

Tk: Even a simple program that uses Ruby/Tk is too slow. I think it's
because Ruby/Tk doesn't call Tk directly; it calls it using Tcl/Tk.

Qt: A good toolkit that supports Unicode. Execution speed is fast. But
when distributing a Ruby/Qt program, I also have to distribute
qt-mt230nc.dll(2,715,648b) and qt2.so(1,744,965b).

Ruby/Qt is still an Alpha version, but that is mostly not a problem.
Other than that and the problem of distribution, I think Ruby/Qt has
no weak points.

Speaking of the distribution problem, FOX also requires
fox.so(4,464,709b). In the case of FLTK, it only needs
rubyfltk.so(649,216b). If FLTK's Unicode support is completed, it will
be a good thing.