[Arx-users] GUI front-end for ArX (was: Re: Proposal)

[Kevin Smith]

address@hidden wrote:
> 
> I have never programed in ruby, how do you feel about it ?

Ruby is by far my favorite mainstream language. I discovered it about 5
years ago, and use it whenever I have a chance.

> But I don't mind starting coding the gui with it.
> Which gui toolkit would you use with ruby ?

If *I* were starting the project, I would probably choose wxruby,
because it uses native widgets on Linux/Windows/Mac, and has a good set
of widgets available. HOWEVER, it's not mature yet, so I can't really
recommend that *you* use it. [Disclaimer: I was the lead on wxruby for a
while years, and am still involved in its development].

Probably the most popular cross-platform Ruby GUI toolkit right now is
fxruby (FOX). It's nice, and mature, but does require Mac folks to run
an X server. I'm not fond of Tk, and the Ruby GTK and Qt bindings appear
to be limited to Linux so far.

So, to summarize, sadly, there is no ideal Ruby GUI development library
yet. I believe Python with wxPython might be a solid choice if you
wanted to use a higher-level scripting language instead of C++.

> I was thinking about c++ because it would help for the integration
> with browsers (a little bit like tortoise works for cvs if I remember
> correctly).

Ah, when you say "browser", I guess you mean a something like Windows
Explorer, or gnome's nautilus (as opposed to a web browser). I haven't
actually tried using an RCS interface like that, but I have heard good
things about them from Windows folks. Yes, C++ might facilitate that.

If you code this in C++ (which I still think would be a fine choice),
what GUI toolkit would you use? Personally, I would lean toward wx
because of the native widgets . That gives users exactly the look and
feel they are used to, and also allows visually impaired folks to "read"
the screen via voice or braille.

Kevin