I’ve just discovered the existence of HTA (HTML Applications), and
although I can now quite happily write basic HTA in JavaScript and
VBScript, I wondered whether anyone knew how to write this kind of thing
in Ruby.
I have no experience in Rails and no server to use; I was thinking of
something that can work as a standalone application in Windows, using a
HTML front-end as a simple alternative to Ruby’s GUI libraries.
I have tried to look this up, but all the results I get are sub-searches
within dodgy download sites.
If this isn’t possible or not a good trade-off of time and results, then
I guess I’ll just have to write in VBS and JavaScript.
On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 5:10 AM, Joel P. [email protected]
wrote:
HTML Applications
Sorry, I was all “Huh? I write these every day…” until I looked it
up and found out it has a very specific meaning. Not a windows person
here, but I’m unsure why it would need to be driven by a specific
language technology.
On Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 5:10 AM, Joel P. [email protected]
wrote:
I’ve just discovered the existence of HTA (HTML Applications), and
although I can now quite happily write basic HTA in JavaScript and
VBScript, I wondered whether anyone knew how to write this kind of thing
in Ruby.
I have no experience in Rails and no server to use; I was thinking of
something that can work as a standalone application in Windows, using a
HTML front-end as a simple alternative to Ruby’s GUI libraries.
I hadn’t heard of this either. I’m guessing you’d have to use some
sort of Ruby that compiles to JavaScript; there are a few listed at
https://github.com/cogitator/ruby-implementations/wiki/List-of-Ruby-implementations,
although none are really close to “native” Ruby functionality.
I have tried to look this up, but all the results I get are sub-searches
within dodgy download sites.
If this isn’t possible or not a good trade-off of time and results, then
I guess I’ll just have to write in VBS and JavaScript.
What use case do you have for HTAs? Are you just trying to write
non-web GUI apps without having to do Tk or one of the other
established GUI frameworks? If so, I seem to recall there being
another runtime environment that lets you use web technologies as if
they were native apps, and I believe it was open source, but apart
from that I don’t recall the details of it at all.
Thanks for the link, I’ll have a look and see if I can find something
relevant.
I’ve always intended to learn HTML and JavaScript; since my current
experience is VBScript, VBA, a bit of C#, and Ruby. This led me to
discover HTA.
HTAs look like a nice simple interface which doesn’t scare users, is
very quick to load, and has the option of multiple ways to accomplish
the same task (HTML, CSS, JS, or VBS). I’m hoping there’s a way to add
Ruby to that list.
I am aware that HTA tech is a bit old and didn’t really take off; but I
think the small application size, native windows support, and the way
you can quickly edit without having to compile anything, are worthwhile
for writing simple things like custom calculators on local machines. At
least, better than my previous approaches of Ruby-Ocra or C#.
Thanks, that looks useful 
I don’t know Japanese but I’ll try and figure it out from the code
samples, or maybe Google translate will help.
Hi,
You could try ActiveScriptRuby from
サービス終了のお知らせ (in
Japanese).
Some examples here: Ruby on HTA - looselife diary
I used this many years ago for scripting HTAs in Ruby - it worked well
for
me then.
Regards,
Sean