From: Paul Vudmaska <paul@...>
Date: 2004-04-19T04:12:36+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] RubyWebDialogs

Jean-Hugues ROBERT wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Skip this msg unless a quick review of RubyWebDialog matters to
> you :-)
>
> >At 21:39 18/04/2004 +0900, you wrote:
> >I'm pleased to announce the birth of RubyWebDialogs.
> >RubyWebDialogs is a platform independent graphical user
> >interface for Ruby applications. It generates HTML and serves
> >it with the internal HTTP server, so you can use your favorite
> >web browser as the front end for your Ruby application. All
> >this means, that it can be used on almost every platform, like
> >Ruby itself.
> >More information and download on
> >http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubywebdialogs/ .
> >
> >gegroet,
> >Erik V.
>
 great idea!

> I had a look at this. It's kind of unusual. When you run
> an application developed with the tool, a web browser
> gets opened and the UI is displayed in it. When the user
> clicks on the "close" button, the application terminates
> (and the security feature of Internet Explorer asks you
> whether you really want to close the browser...).
>
Since  using IE, generate .hta files and avoid the 'close browser 
problem' . And have access to the file system, as if it were a regular app.

On the other hand,  I'd suggest looking into Moz.

> Seems to me that this is an interesting starting point
> for a very portable UI.
>
> I guess it is usable today but I would rather wait until
> much more "widgets" are available, because today you get
> little more than what HTML already provides (which is
> more than enough for a lot of things).
>
> You describe your UI in a text file, with a XML syntax.
> You basically describe pages with forms, actions and
> variables to display. Looking at the tutorial there is
> no obvious API to build the UI, which is rather unusual
> again, because most toolkits provide an API first and
> then a page description language next. Nota: There is
> no visual editor yet to build you UI pages.

XUL! I've seen some talk about XUL with Ruby, this seems like a possible 
first step. Not ruby in the browser, yet, but ruby that generates XUL  
-then runs on the server w/ruby. Perhaps using some of the syntax 
suggested in threads recently.

>
> Overall I like that idea of platform independence thanks
> to "universal" web browser. I hope RubyWebDialogs will evolve
> into something more than the (already usable) proof of
> concept it is now.
>
> BTW: Something apparently trendy these days is called
> "modal web UI", kind of sequential console like question/answer
> UI. Usually implemented with Continuation (to avoid breaking
> the linear flow of control as HTTP request/response does).
> Maybe RubyWebDialog could implement this too somedays.
>
XUL has a similar concept - and it is dynamic(does not return to the 
server) - the 'panels' are disctinctly seperated and easy to develop.

> Thanks Erik, I hope this msg will encourage you to go
> further exploring the very interesting idea you demonstrated.
>
Ditto!