# About Tcl/Tk **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [9 January 2006 15:23 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970 "2006-01-09T15:23:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Piet\_Hadermann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4491bb/32.png) [@Piet\_Hadermann](https://rubytalk.org/u/Piet_Hadermann)\ **Post date:** [9 January 2006 15:23 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/1 "2006-01-09T15:23:17Z")
Surgeon, > From: Surgeon [mailto:biyokuantum@gmail.com] > > In order to build GUIs with Ruby, should I learn Tk? > By the way, I have tried to find Tk tutorials and I have seen > that all of them start with Tcl. Are Tcl and Tk "inseparable" > things? If I want to use/learn Tk, should I learn Tcl first? No need to learn Tcl if you want to lean Tk. Also, for building GUI's in Ruby you shouldn't need to learn Tk, there are other options. I have very good experiences with fxruby ( [http://www.fxruby.org/](http://www.fxruby.org/) ) myself. Almost everything I tried worked as expected, it's quite intuitive and fast and I was able to take my sources developed on a Linux box to a windows machine and it just worked - no further tweaking needed. Why did I first choose fxruby ? It seemed to be both mature enough and able to give me what I wanted fast without putting up too much of a fight. Piet. > **···** > > > -----Original Message----- ---
**Author:** ![Mubin\_Aktan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Mubin\_Aktan](https://rubytalk.org/u/Mubin_Aktan)\ **Post date:** [9 January 2006 16:48 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/2 "2006-01-09T16:48:01Z")
Oh, these are so nice! I didn't know them. Thank you very much indeed! ---
**Author:** ![Mubin\_Aktan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Mubin\_Aktan](https://rubytalk.org/u/Mubin_Aktan)\ **Post date:** [9 January 2006 16:48 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/3 "2006-01-09T16:48:02Z")
Oh, these are so nice! I didn't know them. Thank you very much indeed! ---
**Author:** ![tony\_summerfelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@tony\_summerfelt](https://rubytalk.org/u/tony_summerfelt)\ **Post date:** [9 January 2006 17:35 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/4 "2006-01-09T17:35:20Z")
just out of curiosity did you try fxruby with rubyscript2exe? after playing around with gtk a bit, the only hanging point seem to be easy deployment > **···** > > Piet Hadermann wrote on 1/9/2006 10:23 AM: > > > Why did I first choose fxruby ? It seemed to be both mature enough and able > > to give me what I wanted fast without putting up too much of a fight. > > -- > [http://home.cogeco.ca/~tsummerfelt1](http://home.cogeco.ca/~tsummerfelt1) > telnet://ventedspleen.dyndns.org ---
**Author:** ![Mubin\_Aktan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Mubin\_Aktan](https://rubytalk.org/u/Mubin_Aktan)\ **Post date:** [9 January 2006 17:03 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/5 "2006-01-09T17:03:17Z")
Is it possible to build a GUI with \*NON\*-native look and feel? I mean, I am using Windhose XP and my target platform will be mostly Win, too :--( But I want to make my appz somewhat "Linuxish". Can I do it? ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Combas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba8739/32.png) [@Alex\_Combas](https://rubytalk.org/u/Alex_Combas)\ **Post date:** [9 January 2006 18:21 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/6 "2006-01-09T18:21:51Z")
> after playing around with gtk a bit, the only hanging point seem to be > easy deployment I was hoping ruby-gtk would be what I was looking for, but I haven't started yet and wouldn't mind hearing any problems you've had. What sort of deployment issues are you having? Ability to deploy on all three platforms ('nix, Mac, Win) along with ease of use will be the deciding factor for choosing a toolkit for me. But hopefully it wont look like ass either. Fox is a lot less beautiful than gtk imo. > **···** > > -- > Alex Combas > [http://noodlejunkie.blogspot.com/](http://noodlejunkie.blogspot.com/) ---
**Author:** ![tony\_summerfelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@tony\_summerfelt](https://rubytalk.org/u/tony_summerfelt)\ **Post date:** [9 January 2006 20:43 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/7 "2006-01-09T20:43:37Z")
> I was hoping ruby-gtk would be what I was looking for, but I haven't started > yet and wouldn't mind hearing any problems you've had. > What sort of deployment issues are you having? didn't work with rubyscript2exe. i'd rather not have the customer install gtk themself. other than that i didn't mind the toolkit itself > Ability to deploy\> on all three platforms ('nix, Mac, Win) i'm not able to try mac, but with \*nix i would just hand over the source and point them to the url's for the various toolkits. \*nix users tend to be more savvy than windows users when it comes to a more manual installation. so for windows i just prefer to hand over a one file executable... as a last resort i can use tk, as i'm already familiar with tcl/tk > **···** > > Alex Combas wrote on 1/9/2006 1:21 PM: > -- > [http://home.cogeco.ca/~tsummerfelt1](http://home.cogeco.ca/~tsummerfelt1) > telnet://ventedspleen.dyndns.org ---
**Author:** ![Jason\_Clinton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@Jason\_Clinton](https://rubytalk.org/u/Jason_Clinton)\ **Post date:** [10 January 2006 03:25 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/8 "2006-01-10T03:25:33Z")
Check out RubyQt. It's a lot better than those mentioned already. I believe that a free software versions for Win32 and Mac OS X (using Qt 4.1) are almost complete! > **···** > > On Monday 09 January 2006 12:21, Alex Combas wrote: > > > What sort of deployment issues are you having? Ability to deploy > > on all three platforms ('nix, Mac, Win) along with ease of use > > will be the deciding factor for choosing a toolkit for me. > > > > But hopefully it wont look like ass either. Fox is a lot less > > beautiful than gtk imo. > > -- > I use digital signatures and encryption. My key is stored at pgp.mit.edu > 0x8DB3BF09 FP: F628 D9D3 E57A C281 5EFE - 7DF7 B52A A393 8DB3 BF09 ---
**Author:** ![Jason\_Clinton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@Jason\_Clinton](https://rubytalk.org/u/Jason_Clinton)\ **Post date:** [10 January 2006 03:26 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/9 "2006-01-10T03:26:24Z")
Both GTK and Qt can do what you're looking for and both have Ruby bindings. You'll need to change the theme. > **···** > > On Monday 09 January 2006 11:03, Surgeon wrote: > > > Is it possible to build a GUI with \*NON\*-native look and feel? I > > mean, I am using Windhose XP and my target platform will be mostly > > Win, too > > > > :--( But I want to make my appz somewhat "Linuxish". > > > > Can I do it? > > -- > I use digital signatures and encryption. My key is stored at pgp.mit.edu > 0x8DB3BF09 FP: F628 D9D3 E57A C281 5EFE - 7DF7 B52A A393 8DB3 BF09 ---
**Author:** ![David\_Vallner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb9ed0/32.png) [@David\_Vallner](https://rubytalk.org/u/David_Vallner)\ **Post date:** [10 January 2006 11:01 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/10 "2006-01-10T11:01:57Z")
Surgeon wrote: > Is it possible to build a GUI with \*NON\*-native look and feel? I mean, > I am using Windhose XP and my target platform will be mostly Win, too > :--( But I want to make my appz somewhat "Linuxish". For the sake of being nitpicky, I have to say that's a VERY bad thing to do. Unless you have a sadistic desire to baffle your users, you should try to keep the L&F of your applications consistent with either conventions for the target platform, or perhaps more importantly with other similar applications on the same platform. Besides, L&Fs aren't really a thing that UI toolkits define, but rather how you design an application. Besided, overriding controls to behave contrary to the system defaults in all the details involved (like having selection copy to the clipboard, or a single click launch an activation event instead of a double click) is a lot of more or less pointless work. \   PS: By gods, do use proper english, I'd like to think of this as a mature mailing list, not an IRC channel for 15 year olds. Thank you very much. \ ---
**Author:** ![tony\_summerfelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@tony\_summerfelt](https://rubytalk.org/u/tony_summerfelt)\ **Post date:** [10 January 2006 14:36 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/about-tcl-tk/23970/11 "2006-01-10T14:36:11Z")
v4 out for windows yet? googling for it didn't come up with anything usable... > **···** > > Jason Dewayne Clinton wrote on 1/9/2006 10:25 PM: > > > Check out RubyQt. It's a lot better than those mentioned already. > > -- > [http://home.cogeco.ca/~tsummerfelt1](http://home.cogeco.ca/~tsummerfelt1) > telnet://ventedspleen.dyndns.org