I am investigating creating desktop apps using Ruby and would value your
input. Here are the options as I see them, I am asking on this list
because the most likely two seem to be JRuby options but I am putting
everything down for completeness.
Shoes
Shoes seems good for small applications but bigger ones seem to be a bit
out of scope; from messing around with it distribution is also quite
clumsy.
Qt + MRI Ruby
This option falls down in that there doesn’t seem to be any way to
package up a Qt + Ruby application for easy distribution. Some people
have reported success with rubyscript2exe but this seems pretty old and
there may be trouble with some of the gems around.
This is one of the few options I have seen that appeared to result in a
commercial application (Jotbot, now discontinued) which is a point in
its favour. However I have been unable to get any of the examples apart
from the simplest one running on my computer. Last commit was at the
beginning of the year.
Swing + JRuby without a framework such as monkeybars
The last option if the above ones do not pan out; makes my lazy self
cringe but cannot be discounted.
???
If anyone has experience developing desktop applications or are
developing them now. What are you using? What has your experience been?
Do you have any suggestions? Has there been any options I have missed
out?
This is one of the few options I have seen that appeared to result in a
commercial application (Jotbot, now discontinued) which is a point in
its favour.
It was also used for a much larger private application (a satellite
modem control application).
However I have been unable to get any of the examples apart
from the simplest one running on my computer. Last commit was at the
beginning of the year.
There’s been little more done because it pretty much Just Works.
However, the examples fell behind the lib updates and need to be either
updated or removed.
I also need to check if anything unusual happens when used with JRuby
1.6.4.
Good timing, I am experimenting with Monkeybars right now.
I think the main trouble I may be having is that I am using JRuby
(1.6.3) with RVM on Linux which may be causing some trouble. Was
Monkeybars ever tried in that environment?
The fact that it isn’t under active dev because it Just Works is very
encouraging; I shall have to do some more digging, if I need some help I
shall ask on the monkeybars mailing list rather than clutter up this
one.
I am investigating creating desktop apps using Ruby and would value your input.
Here are the options as I see them, I am asking on this list because the most
likely two seem to be JRuby options but I am putting everything down for
completeness.
???
If anyone has experience developing desktop applications or are developing them
now. What are you using? What has your experience been? Do you have any
suggestions? Has there been any options I have missed out?
We have four apps in production based on Eclipse SWT, and they are easy
to develop and perform well.
I developed a larger Swing application using my own framework
(https://github.com/rogergl/input_form). It is basically a framework
around the MigLayout.
So far I’m quite happy with it but it is probably to much tailored to my
own needs.
I have just used this to develop and ship a small GUI running on
Windows. Using JRuby as the platform made it a snap.
The library hasn’t had a lot of attention in the past year, but I was in
touch with the author and he indicated it was going to get some code
love very soon.
Because I don’t have time enough, a lot of things are missing
(documentation, good tutorials, features, main site update - http://swiby.codehaus.org/). As no one use it, the developement is
freezed for the moment.
The goal of Swiby was to create a Swing-facade using a DSL written for
jRuby and make Swing ‘easier’ or ‘simpler’.
I try to test with each new release of jRuby and often see problems
appearing… if I have time I fix it and commit the changes, in the
trunk branch at http://svn.codehaus.org/swiby/trunk.
From: Tom R. [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 7:46 PM
Subject: Re: [jruby-user] GUI Applications using ruby
Because I don’t have time enough, a lot of things are missing
(documentation, good tutorials, features, main site update - http://swiby.codehaus.org/). As no one use it, the developement is
freezed for the moment.
The goal of Swiby was to create a Swing-facade using a DSL written for
jRuby and make Swing ‘easier’ or ‘simpler’.
I started a pretty simple version of this idea with SwingSet-NG that’s
included with Monkeybars.
The initial goal was to at least make simple things such as frames, text
areas, buttons, easy to create without raw Swing or a GUI builder.
SwingSet-NG uses the MiG layout jar.
In general, though, Monkeybars should work with any such library that
provides Swing objects.
I’m curious about that, too. That DSL looks neat, but last time I
looked at it the project show little sign of life (it also got
archived from eclipse.org).
Just out of curiousity, have Uwe and the Redcar folks tried it? Maybe
ye found it limited or not useful enough?
The ‘swt’ gem seems just a set of java imports. I’d need a Ruby-like,
simplified API, suitable for non-Java people.
Thanks,
Gergo
simplified API, suitable for non-Java people.
I just started playing with Monkeybars today. The integration with
NetBeans Matisse is nice. There’s a good chapter in the JRuby book, if
you
haven’t read it already.
I looked at glimmer 3 years ago, and it may have changed a lot since
then.
We have made our own tiny helper module for creating the widgets we need
along with helpers for TreeView. We never felt a need for a
glue/framework. SWT is easy enough to use from JRuby as it is.
On 2011-11-02, at 11:31, Gergely N. wrote:
The ‘swt’ gem seems just a set of java imports. I’d need a Ruby-like,
simplified API, suitable for non-Java people.
Thanks,
Gergo
