GUI for a newbie

[Matthew Borgeson]

Does it affect your decision that Nokia just bought the company that
makes Qt?

I've never developed anything with Qt, but it seems unlikely that you
need to know any C++ to use the ruby bindings.

I just wanted to thand everyone with your two cents; it helped me make a
decision as follows:

While I appreciate the C# thoughts, I'll pass as well as on any Visual
Studio or Microsoft tools. Besides the MS limiting of the free flow of
information, I really don't want to spend any money on software; I don't
mind buying books but I just feel buying software is a waste of money as
far as a hobby is concerned; At least I can take books with me on the
train, inthe bathroom, et cetera...

I downloaded the Agile Friday book on QtRuby (9 bucks) as well as the
tutorial from the Tk 8.5 website(Which actually does look better than
the versions before it)and have decided that I am going to try both on a
simple little 100-line, dose- calculating program I cobbled together and
see which is quicker to learn;Whichever one gives me the fewest
conceptual headaches wins .

The Gtk documentation seemed a bit convoluted and filled with exceptions
when I paged through it the first time. I looked at shoes, but it seemed
a bit cutting edge for me. WxRuby seemed a bit convoluted as well. The
tutorials for Tk and Qt are organized and seem to be what I need. I
guess Ill post here once I have finished the two programs and let
everyonoe know how it goes...

Thanks again for the feedback-

Matthew F Borgesono

 

[Nando Sanchez]

About QT, you need to take into account that it's free only for Open
Source projects, and it's quite expensive for any other type of project.

I've been using FXRuby for my first Ruby app and it's ok, it's not
perfect but it gets the job done. WXRuby seems to be a good candidate in
the future, whenever it's production ready (WXRuby site clearly says the
last version is not production ready )

Nando

 

[gregarican]

I just wanted to thand everyone with your two cents; it helped me make a
decision as follows:

While I appreciate the C# thoughts, I'll pass as well as on any Visual
Studio or Microsoft tools. Besides the MS limiting of the free flow of
information, I really don't want to spend any money on software; I don't
mind buying books but I just feel buying software is a waste of money as
far as a hobby is concerned; At least I can take books with me on the
train, inthe bathroom, et cetera...

I downloaded the Agile Friday book on QtRuby (9 bucks) as well as the
tutorial from the Tk 8.5 website(Which actually does look better than
the versions before it)and have decided that I am going to try both on a
simple little 100-line, dose- calculating program I cobbled together and
see which is quicker to learn;Whichever one gives me the fewest
conceptual headaches wins .

The Gtk documentation seemed a bit convoluted and filled with exceptions
when I paged through it the first time. I looked at shoes, but it seemed
a bit cutting edge for me. WxRuby seemed a bit convoluted as well. The
tutorials for Tk and Qt are organized and seem to be what I need. I
guess Ill post here once I have finished the two programs and let
everyonoe know how it goes...

Thanks again for the feedback-

Matthew F Borgesono

That's good that you narrowed down your search. I recall writing the
same GUI app using a couple of different toolkits for Ruby. It was the
same choices as yours --- Qt and Tk. Looking at the overall
experience, coding time, and whatnot made it interesting comparing the
two. I would up choosing the Qt version as my producction app. In this
case it was for a handheld CRM app written for the Sharp Zaurus.

Point of clarification on the Microsoft tools. You can download Visual
C# 2005 Express edition and get a "lite" version of the VS 2005 for
free. It lacks some of the features of the full-blown IDE but it's
still very effective. Same with SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. For
testing out things all of it costs nothing. I wouldn't call any of it
"crippleware" as it is very functional and good for testing out what
you're looking to do. For my workplace I just had the company spring
$200 USD for VS 2005 so that I could have all of the functionality at
my fingertips.

Good luck with your Ruby GUI development work. The code sure is a lot
easier to read and pick back up again once you've left it for awhile
(compared with C#)!

 

[Mohit Sindhwani]

I would agree %100 with your comparison of C# and Ruby. Ruby almost
feels like it has a forgiving, intuitive soul, that understands what
you want it to do. C# on the other hand, feels more like a cold dead
thing, that will obey your command, if you ask nicely, but has no
intuition. Another option down the line for you may be Microsoft's
IronRuby. I sort of cringe at the thought of IronRuby though. Its like
turning Ruby into a Borg,
...resistance is futile... you will assimilate!...
There is another tool by ActiveState called Tk Gui Builder (formally
called SpecTCL). It will create a Tk GUI for Ruby, Perl, and a few
other platforms, and has the RAD feel to it. Unfortunately it is no
longer supported, I recently gave GUI Builder a try, and although it
works well, it made some things more difficult. In the end, I found it
easier to write the code for the GUI myself. It might be worth you
having a look a though. There is also a small Google Group called
"Ruby And The Tk Toolkit", that you might find useful.

Actually, WideStudio has drag-and-drop and can als0 do some of the
wiring automatically. However, very few people seem to use it.

Cheers,
Mohit.
2/5/2008 | 12:58 PM.

 

[Dan Fitzpatrick]

I have enjoyed using jRuby with Monkeybars. You can use the NetBeans IDE
to do the drag and drop GUI design using Swing components and then a few
lines of Ruby to hook it together (No Java required). Pretty simple and
cross platform. There is a nice little starter project (RSS Reader) to
get you going. See the two screen casts for a taste on the Monkeybars
docs page.

http://netbeans.org/
http://monkeybars.rubyforge.org/

Dan

 

[Chad Perrin]

Actually, WideStudio has drag-and-drop and can als0 do some of the
wiring automatically. However, very few people seem to use it.

I'm sure part of the reason for that is that it's not in either the
standard APT repositories for Debian or the FreeBSD ports system. These
are the two largest software management system archives out there, by the
way -- so if they don't have 'em, chances are good people aren't going to
find them easy and convenient to install a lot of the time.

 

[Matthew Borgeson]

Hello All-

I have taken up Ruby over the past year and have finally written 7
applications for various functions for my job as a clinical pharmacist.

The problem I have here is that while my programs all work great, they
are all CLI interface. In order to increase their palatability among my
coworkers, however, I wish to add a GUI.

The question I have here is NOT which is the best for my needs. I have
it nailed down to three based on the platforms and screenshots I have
seen of their results:

Gtk (Would be nice on my Nokia n800 maemo)
Qt (My preference)
Tk (Seems to be the favorite of the Ruby folk)

My question is which would be the easiest to learn. While I want to use
Qt (I just feel comfortable with its maturity)I am concerned by how hard
it will be to learn, considering I have no C++ background.

Any guidance before I commit to learning one would be appreciated...

Thank you

Matthew F Borgeson

Well, I want to first thank you all for your opinions regarding my
original post.

When I last posted, I said I was going to try both Qt and Tk and see
which one was easier to get up and runnning with.

Three months later, after I purchased the QtRuby Friday PDF from the
Pragmatic Programmers, I dove in to QtRuby. In one month's time, I was
able to get the front end started and 2 of the 6 tabs in the program
completed. The book did a nice job of walking through code line by line
and I was able to take off from there. I would have to say the hardest
part was getting used to the semantics with Qt as the widget classes
used the double colon connectors; something I was not used to.

I have been having so much fun and so productive that I may not ever
make it to try Tk; but I am on my way to where I need to go and am
really happy.

I have seen other stumbling with the same question I posted in February
and just wanted to share my experiences here with you all.

 

[Jayson Williams]

I have been having so much fun and so productive that I may not ever

make it to try Tk; but I am on my way to where I need to go and am
really happy.

I have seen other stumbling with the same question I posted in February
and just wanted to share my experiences here with you all.

To be honest, the reasons you probably will never making it to trying
out TK is most likely the reason why many TK users rarely move to
something else. After you get comfortable with the toolkit, and become
productive, it can be difficult start from scratch with a new toolkit.
I guess whats most important is that QT is working for you.

Congrats!
~Jay