# Ruby kiosk client suggestions

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-kiosk-client-suggestions/120809>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 20, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-kiosk-client-suggestions/120809 "2007-11-20T19:29:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kyleh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/a9a28c/32.png) [@kyleh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kyleh)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-kiosk-client-suggestions/120809/1 "2007-11-20T19:29:00Z")

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Hello all,  
I’m writing an Open Source Internet-Cafe style kiosk system for  
public libraries in Ruby. I’m trying to find a gui toolkit that will fit  
my needs, and hours of googling have given me little incite. Here is  
what it needs to do.

1. Display a login screen for username/password. This screen needs to  
take over the entire desktop, and not allow task switching or anything  
of the like.

2. A small window or menu applet to let users know how much time they  
have left.

3. Small popup alerts when time is getting low.

4. This program needs to run on Linux/KDE and Windows.

Part 1 is what I can’t figure out. At first, I was going to use Tk, but  
I can’t find a way to do it in Tk. Then I was going to use Qt, but I’ve  
found I will have many problems getting a ruby/qt application to run on  
windows. Now I’m thinking of using Ruby/GTK2.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. In particular, code to implement  
part 1 would be wonderful.

Thanks for your help.  
Kyle

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**Author:** ![kyleh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/a9a28c/32.png) [@kyleh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kyleh)\
**Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-kiosk-client-suggestions/120809/2 "2007-11-20T23:15:56Z")

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Kyle H. wrote:

> 1. Display a login screen for username/password. This screen needs to  
> take over the entire desktop, and not allow task switching or anything  
> of the like.

wxRuby has a Frame#show\_full\_screen method which will display a Frame  
(Window) across the whole screen area without any decorations such as a  
title bar. It should be possible to suppress task switching using event  
handling. It also has a Timer class.

[http://wxruby.rubyforge.org](http://wxruby.rubyforge.org)

> Then I was going to use Qt, but I’ve  
> found I will have many problems getting a ruby/qt application to run on  
> windows. Now I’m thinking of using Ruby/GTK2.

wxRuby works with native widgets on Windows, OS X and Linux/GTK. It’s  
straightforward to install (gem install wxruby); no messing around with  
extra .dlls or .sos or packages.

> Any suggestions would be appreciated. In particular, code to implement  
> part 1 would be wonderful.

require ‘wx’

Wx::App.run do  
frame = Wx::Frame.new(nil)  
frame.show\_full\_screen(true)  
end

hth  
alex

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kyleh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/a9a28c/32.png) [@kyleh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kyleh)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 2:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-kiosk-client-suggestions/120809/3 "2007-11-21T14:56:25Z")

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On Nov 20, 1:28 pm, Kyle H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Part 1 is what I can’t figure out. At first, I was going to use Tk, but  
> I can’t find a way to do it in Tk. Then I was going to use Qt, but I’ve  
> found I will have many problems getting a ruby/qt application to run on  
> windows. Now I’m thinking of using Ruby/GTK2.
> 
> Any suggestions would be appreciated. In particular, code to implement  
> part 1 would be wonderful.

Make sure it handles ~~ on Windows,  
 on Linux, etc.~~

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kyleh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/a9a28c/32.png) [@kyleh](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kyleh)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-kiosk-client-suggestions/120809/4 "2007-11-21T16:02:52Z")

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On Nov 20, 6:28 pm, Kyle H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> 1. A small window or menu applet to let users know how much time they  
> have left.
> 
> 2. Small popup alerts when time is getting low.
> 
> 3. This program needs to run on Linux/KDE and Windows.
> 
> Part 1 is what I can’t figure out. At first, I was going to use Tk, but  
> I can’t find a way to do it in Tk. Then I was going to useQt, but I’ve  
> found I will have many problems getting a ruby/qtapplication to run on  
> windows. Now I’m thinking of using Ruby/GTK2.  
> Jan P. has created a Windows gem for QtRuby 1.4.9 with everything  
> you to just install and run, including the Qt libraries themselves.

You can download it from the QtRuby/Korundum RubyForge site:

[http://rubyforge.org/projects/korundum/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/korundum/)

You could certainly implement your requirements above quite easily in  
QtRuby.

– Richard