I am just getting back to using Ruby after a 3 year absence (from any
type of programming) and for my next project (strictly personal) I will
be using Ruby to pull data from webpages and filter and massage it with
the end result being a text file with 1 line per item.
I then need a GUI to display the data and make minor changes to the data
and a control file. But its primary purpose is simply to display the
data in a grid format for external decisions.
I am familiar with C and C++ (but rusty) and had planned use a
windows based C++ program as my GUI
I have seen references to several Ruby based GUI interfaces but know
nothing about them. From what I have seen so far, either Shoes (wait
for version 4?) or Ruby/TK would be the ones to look at. There may be
others better suited that I have not found.
I would prefer to use Ruby only for my simple GUI requirements and I am
looking for a Ruby GUI recommendation from someone who has been this
route before.
Excerpts from Don Norcott's message of 2013-11-13 21:33:34 +0100:
I am just getting back to using Ruby after a 3 year absence (from any
type of programming) and for my next project (strictly personal) I will
be using Ruby to pull data from webpages and filter and massage it with
the end result being a text file with 1 line per item.
I then need a GUI to display the data and make minor changes to the data
and a control file. But its primary purpose is simply to display the
data in a grid format for external decisions.
I am familiar with C and C++ (but rusty) and had planned use a
windows based C++ program as my GUI
I have seen references to several Ruby based GUI interfaces but know
nothing about them. From what I have seen so far, either Shoes (wait
for version 4?) or Ruby/TK would be the ones to look at. There may be
others better suited that I have not found.
I would prefer to use Ruby only for my simple GUI requirements and I am
looking for a Ruby GUI recommendation from someone who has been this
route before.
Any suggestions appreciated
Thanks Don
I like very much QtRuby, the ruby bindings for the Qt library. There's a
binary gem for windows called qtbindings. Unfortunately, the gem doesn't
include the UI designer. While you can do without it, you can install it
together with Qt itself from The Qt Project (mind to
download the 4.8 version, as the 5.* aren't supported by the bindings).
The library itself is already included in the bindings, but you need it
for the UI designer, called QtDesigner.
I would prefer to use Ruby only for my simple GUI requirements and I am
looking for a Ruby GUI recommendation from someone who has been this
route before.
My experience says that every toolkit has its drawbacks (portability,
ease of installation (that's only important if you distribute your app),
uglyness, usability, learning curve), and at the end of the day using
the browser for GUI can solve these issues. You can use Sinatra.
I've found GTK to be very flexible and quick compared to TCL/Tk.
I experimented with Ruby Shoes but didn't get on with it, although it's
probably moved on since then. GTK2 is my current GUI of choice on
Windows 7.
Just to clarify, these applications will be strictly for my own use and
will not be distributed.
They will be used and built in a Windows environment (build is on Win
8.1)
The purpose of the application is to display data in an easily readable
format so a user can make choices external to the program. The
application below may get much more complex the GUI will change little.
The app will retrieve data from web pages and create a data file of
items/objects to display. This data changes completely on each run.
A control file (desired or undesired general properties) and a history
file (previously modified objects)are used to remove items or change
their properties. The result is a file of displayable items.
The purpose of the GUI is to display the items in a grid format that can
be scrolled both vertically and horizontally. The only user input will
be the ability to select an item in the grid and from a choice on a drop
down menu modify its properties. This flags it for inclusion in the
history file.
After the GUI is closed the history file is updated and the display item
file is discarded.
I would prefer to use Ruby only for my simple GUI requirements and I am
looking for a Ruby GUI recommendation from someone who has been this
route before.
My experience says that every GUI toolkit has its drawbacks
(portability, ease of installation (that's only important if you
distribute your app), uglyness, usability, learning curve), and at the
end of the day using the browser for GUI can solve these issues. You can
use Sinatra.
The purpose of the application is to display data in an easily readable
format so a user can make choices external to the program. The
application below may get much more complex the GUI will change little.
What you're saying sounds like a good fit even for a locally hosted web application, especially if you're familiar with a bit of Javascript for the interactivity.
On the other hand, if you're comfortable with C++, my preference would have been Embarcadero (Borland) C++ Builder for the GUI, a suitable database (if it fits, SQLite3) as the intermediate store, and a set of Ruby scripts to populate the database. With a defined schema as the interface, there is no reason for the UI to be built in the same language (other than the convenience of Ruby).