# Recommendation for Simple GUI Development **URL:** \ **Category:** ruby-talk\ **Created:** [26 January 2007 02:15 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822 "2007-01-26T02:15:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![billbell52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@billbell52](https://rubytalk.org/u/billbell52)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2007 02:15 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/1 "2007-01-26T02:15:10Z")
I am looking for a quick easy GUI development capability that runs on both Windows and Linux. Today, I am using Excel's VBA to create a GUI and using that to control running the Ruby scipts. It is a simple 20 minute job to create a GUI to control different Ruby scripts and I use Excel to report back results. I would like to have the same solution that runs on Linux and Windows. I thought I would use QT4 from Trolltech. They have a nice GUI development environment that allows you to quickly develop a GUI but I cannot find any Ruby GEM that binds QT4 to Ruby on the PC - so no go. I looked at some other solutions but all of the them seem to required a lot of development time to create the GUI. I need widgets like a tabbed panel, listbox, combobox, optionbox, checkbox, textbox Any other recommendations? ---
**Author:** ![M\_Edward\_Ed\_Borasky1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@M\_Edward\_Ed\_Borasky1](https://rubytalk.org/u/M_Edward_Ed_Borasky1)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2007 03:35 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/2 "2007-01-26T03:35:03Z")
billbell52 wrote: > I am looking for a quick easy GUI development capability that runs on > both Windows and Linux. Today, I am using Excel's VBA to create a GUI > and using that to control running the Ruby scipts. It is a simple 20 > minute job to create a GUI to control different Ruby scripts and I use > Excel to report back results. I would like to have the same solution > that runs on Linux and Windows. I thought I would use QT4 from > Trolltech. They have a nice GUI development environment that allows > you to quickly develop a GUI but I cannot find any Ruby GEM that binds > QT4 to Ruby on the PC - so no go. I looked at some other solutions but > all of the them seem to required a lot of development time to create > the GUI. > > I need widgets like a tabbed panel, listbox, combobox, optionbox, > checkbox, textbox > > Any other recommendations? >    Given the requirement for both Windows and Linux and relatively seamless development, my recommendation is to use Ruby/Tk. It's portable, easily obtained for both Windows and Linux and comes with lots of examples. You might also want to have a look at the Komodo Editor. I know the full Komodo package comes with nice integration for Tk, especially ActiveState Tcl/Tk on Windows, but I don't know if the free as in beer editor has all that. If you have the budget, get a full Komodo license to develop with on your Windows box and use the Linux editor to test on Linux. I thought the Ruby bindings for Qt4 were in pretty good shape on both Windows and Linux. Can someone here comment on the status? I'd hate to see you abandon Qt4; it's really a first-class GUI platform and the widgets look and feel much better than the Tk ones. > **···** > > -- > M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, FBG, AB, PTA, PGS, MS, MNLP, NST, ACMC(P) > [http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/](http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/) > > If God had meant for carrots to be eaten cooked, He would have given rabbits fire. ---
**Author:** ![7rans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/a8b319/32.png) [@7rans](https://rubytalk.org/u/7rans)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2007 04:44 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/3 "2007-01-26T04:44:17Z")
If your needs do not require advanced graphic requirements, the best course of action is to write a servlet accessed via the browser -- an HTML GUI. It's easy enough for a script tostart the servlet and launche the users prefered browser accessing it in one shot. With a little more cleverness one can even deacivate bowser menus and toolbars even --it would be hard to tell such a browser window from any other GUI app. T. > **···** > > On Jan 25, 9:15 pm, "billbell52" \ wrote: > > > I am looking for a quick easy GUI development capability that runs on > > both Windows and Linux. Today, I am using Excel's VBA to create a GUI > > and using that to control running the Ruby scipts. It is a simple 20 > > minute job to create a GUI to control different Ruby scripts and I use > > Excel to report back results. I would like to have the same solution > > that runs on Linux and Windows. I thought I would use QT4 from > > Trolltech. They have a nice GUI development environment that allows > > you to quickly develop a GUI but I cannot find any Ruby GEM that binds > > QT4 to Ruby on the PC - so no go. I looked at some other solutions but > > all of the them seem to required a lot of development time to create > > the GUI. > > > > I need widgets like a tabbed panel, listbox, combobox, optionbox, > > checkbox, textbox > > > > Any other recommendations? ---
**Author:** ![Farrel\_Lifson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3da27b/32.png) [@Farrel\_Lifson](https://rubytalk.org/u/Farrel_Lifson)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2007 07:02 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/4 "2007-01-26T07:02:53Z")
FoxGUIB - [http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/\](http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/%5C). It let's you build a FOX based GUI and it's written in Ruby. It works for me on Windows, haven't tried it on Linux. Farrel > **···** > > On 26/01/07, billbell52 \ wrote: > > > I am looking for a quick easy GUI development capability that runs on > > both Windows and Linux. Today, I am using Excel's VBA to create a GUI > > and using that to control running the Ruby scipts. It is a simple 20 > > minute job to create a GUI to control different Ruby scripts and I use > > Excel to report back results. I would like to have the same solution > > that runs on Linux and Windows. I thought I would use QT4 from > > Trolltech. They have a nice GUI development environment that allows > > you to quickly develop a GUI but I cannot find any Ruby GEM that binds > > QT4 to Ruby on the PC - so no go. I looked at some other solutions but > > all of the them seem to required a lot of development time to create > > the GUI. > > > > I need widgets like a tabbed panel, listbox, combobox, optionbox, > > checkbox, textbox > > > > Any other recommendations? ---
**Author:** ![Johan\_Veenstra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Johan\_Veenstra](https://rubytalk.org/u/Johan_Veenstra)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2007 13:04 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/5 "2007-01-26T13:04:07Z")
[http://rubyforge.org/projects/korundum/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/korundum/) > **···** > > On 1/26/07, billbell52 \ wrote: > > > I thought I would use QT4 from > > Trolltech. They have a nice GUI development environment that allows > > you to quickly develop a GUI but I cannot find any Ruby GEM that binds > > QT4 to Ruby on the PC - so no go. ---
**Author:** ![Meinrad\_Recheis1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Meinrad\_Recheis1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Meinrad_Recheis1)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2007 11:24 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/6 "2007-01-26T11:24:05Z")
foxGUIb is a quick and simple way of creating fxruby gui code. fxruby / fox has all the things you need, but the look and feel is very rigid and windows 2000 like. annother possibility is the excellent Java Swing Toolkit. but then you need to go with JRuby. -- henon (author of foxGUIb) > **···** > > On 1/26/07, Farrel Lifson \ wrote: > > > On 26/01/07, billbell52 \ wrote: > > \> I am looking for a quick easy GUI development capability that runs on > > \> both Windows and Linux. Today, I am using Excel's VBA to create a GUI > > \> and using that to control running the Ruby scipts. It is a simple 20 > > \> minute job to create a GUI to control different Ruby scripts and I use > > \> Excel to report back results. I would like to have the same solution > > \> that runs on Linux and Windows. I thought I would use QT4 from > > \> Trolltech. They have a nice GUI development environment that allows > > \> you to quickly develop a GUI but I cannot find any Ruby GEM that binds > > \> QT4 to Ruby on the PC - so no go. I looked at some other solutions but > > \> all of the them seem to required a lot of development time to create > > \> the GUI. > > \> > > \> I need widgets like a tabbed panel, listbox, combobox, optionbox, > > \> checkbox, textbox > > \> > > \> Any other recommendations? > > \> > > > > FoxGUIB - [http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/\](http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/%5C). It let's you build a FOX > > based GUI and it's written in Ruby. It works for me on Windows, > > haven't tried it on Linux. > > > > Farrel ---
**Author:** ![M\_Edward\_Ed\_Borasky1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@M\_Edward\_Ed\_Borasky1](https://rubytalk.org/u/M_Edward_Ed_Borasky1)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2007 14:17 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/7 "2007-01-26T14:17:04Z")
Johan Veenstra wrote: > **···** > > > On 1/26/07, billbell52 \ wrote: > > > > > I thought I would use QT4 from > > > Trolltech. They have a nice GUI development environment that allows > > > you to quickly develop a GUI but I cannot find any Ruby GEM that binds > > > QT4 to Ruby on the PC - so no go. > > > > [http://rubyforge.org/projects/korundum/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/korundum/) > > Korundum runs on Windows?? > > -- > M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, FBG, AB, PTA, PGS, MS, MNLP, NST, ACMC(P) > [http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/](http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/) > > If God had meant for carrots to be eaten cooked, He would have given rabbits fire. ---
**Author:** ![\_Pena\_Botp1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/94ad74/32.png) [@\_Pena\_Botp1](https://rubytalk.org/u/_Pena_Botp1)\ **Post date:** [27 January 2007 01:14 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/8 "2007-01-27T01:14:00Z")
# FoxGUIB - [http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/](http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/). It let's you build a FOX # based GUI and it's written in Ruby. It works for me on Windows, # haven't tried it on Linux. this is a great step. i just downloaded and did a quick try. I cannot seem to do drag and drop (like forms) nor can I stretch widgets by dragging. Tips pls.. Thanks for foxguib. kind regards -botp > **···** > > From: Farrel Lifson [[mailto:farrel.lifson@gmail.com](mailto:farrel.lifson@gmail.com)] : ---
**Author:** ![M\_Edward\_Ed\_Borasky1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@M\_Edward\_Ed\_Borasky1](https://rubytalk.org/u/M_Edward_Ed_Borasky1)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2007 14:14 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/9 "2007-01-26T14:14:54Z")
Meinrad Recheis wrote: > **···** > > > On 1/26/07, Farrel Lifson \ wrote: > > > > > On 26/01/07, billbell52 \ wrote: > > > \> I am looking for a quick easy GUI development capability that runs on > > > \> both Windows and Linux. Today, I am using Excel's VBA to create a GUI > > > \> and using that to control running the Ruby scipts. It is a simple 20 > > > \> minute job to create a GUI to control different Ruby scripts and I use > > > \> Excel to report back results. I would like to have the same solution > > > \> that runs on Linux and Windows. I thought I would use QT4 from > > > \> Trolltech. They have a nice GUI development environment that allows > > > \> you to quickly develop a GUI but I cannot find any Ruby GEM that binds > > > \> QT4 to Ruby on the PC - so no go. I looked at some other solutions but > > > \> all of the them seem to required a lot of development time to create > > > \> the GUI. > > > \> > > > \> I need widgets like a tabbed panel, listbox, combobox, optionbox, > > > \> checkbox, textbox > > > \> > > > \> Any other recommendations? > > > \> > > > > > > FoxGUIB - [http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/\](http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/%5C). It let's you build a FOX > > > based GUI and it's written in Ruby. It works for me on Windows, > > > haven't tried it on Linux. > > > > > > Farrel > > > > foxGUIb is a quick and simple way of creating fxruby gui code. fxruby > > / fox has all the things you need, but the look and feel is very rigid > > and windows 2000 like. > > Given that they are on Windows 98, wouldn't a Windows 2000 look and feel be a step forward? 🙂 > > -- > M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, FBG, AB, PTA, PGS, MS, MNLP, NST, ACMC(P) > [http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/](http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/) > > If God had meant for carrots to be eaten cooked, He would have given rabbits fire. ---
**Author:** ![Meinrad\_Recheis1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Meinrad\_Recheis1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Meinrad_Recheis1)\ **Post date:** [27 January 2007 14:16 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendation-for-simple-gui-development/34822/10 "2007-01-27T14:16:34Z")
> From: Farrel Lifson [mailto:farrel.lifson@gmail.com] : > # FoxGUIB - [http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/\](http://fox-tool.rubyforge.org/%5C). It let's you build a FOX > # based GUI and it's written in Ruby. It works for me on Windows, > # haven't tried it on Linux. > > this is a great step. > i just downloaded and did a quick try. > I cannot seem to do drag and drop (like forms) nor can I stretch widgets by dragging. Tips pls.. hi, position and size of widgets is meant to be controlled by layout hints in fox toolkit. it is also possible to position widgets explicitly but it is not recommended. please have a look at the foxGUIb user guide to find out about how widget layout in fox works. [http://www.mikeparr.info/rubyguib/foxguibguide.htm](http://www.mikeparr.info/rubyguib/foxguibguide.htm) hth, -- henon > **···** > > On 1/27/07, Peña, Botp \ wrote: > > > Thanks for foxguib. > > kind regards -botp