From: Conrad Schneiker <schneik@...>
Date: 2000-12-31T13:53:54+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:8382] Re: GUIs for Rubies

Kevin Smith wrote:
> 
> Conrad Schneiker wrote:
> >So Tk and GTK are (presently) ahead of wxWindows and FOX when it comes 
to
> >GUI-based GUI-builders that actually generate Ruby code.
> 
> If I understand our terminology here, wx has
> wxDesigner, which allows you to lay out dialogs
> that can be used by C++ and Python. 

Yes (although wxDesigner is a commercial tool). I think FOX has something 
similar and simpler, but free. But I was talking about things "that 
actually generate Ruby code". I'm sure that wouldn't be too hard to add 
Ruby output capability to either system, but such things are still in the 
vaporspace regions of cyberspace at present.

> I'm not sure
> how that compares to Glade or Tk's designer app.

IMHO (although it's been a while since I tried out Glade and I haven't 
done anything major with it) I think Glade is probably in a technically 
more advanced league than SpecRuby (which also seems somewhat quirky, and 
sometimes seems to miss mouse events). Anyway, FWIW, here are some 
promotional quotes from (http://www.roebling.de/quotes.html) that deal 
with wxDesigner, Glade, and VB:

# William Richter wrote:
# 
# "Having come from pygtk/gnome+glade background, I'm in the process
# of becoming familiar with wxWindows and wxDesigner. After
# experimenting with wxDesigner for a few days I've found it has a
# number of features that I've been searching for in a gui building
# tool, i.e. sizers are the right approach to laying out components in
# frames." 
# 
# Geoff Talvola wrote:
# 
# "I've looked at the WYSIWYG GUI designers for Python (on Windows
# only), and in my opinion the best I've seen is wxDesigner for
# wxPython. [...] It's a commercial product, but it's pretty cheap
# [...] It doesn't attempt to be a complete IDE like PythonWorks or
# Boa Constructor, but it appears to do a great job of quickly letting
# you lay out your GUI and spit out wxPython code. In fact, I like its
# approach to GUI layout better than VB's approach. [...] As a bonus,
# it will also work with wxWindows if you need GUIs in C++ programs." 

> However, the more I think about it, and the more
> I use GTK (and Tk), the less inclined I am to
> want wxRuby. I think lightweight solutions are
> more in line with Ruby's philosophy and the way
> it is/will be used in the real world. [I used wx
> for a couple months about a year ago].

Conrad Schneiker
(This note is unofficial and subject to improvement without notice.)