Dear All,
I am writing to ask if someone among the Ruby user base can address an
issue for me. I have begun to review Ruby after learning Java/Swing.
I found Java to be good enough, but alot of code to get things done. It
was not too painfull to learn. I read 3 books on Java / SWING and came
away able to write basic apps with a GUI. I decided that I wanted
something simpler, and cleaner to use. Something that I could also teach
to others in my group [ mostly Bourne Shell scripters ]. Ruby is nice in
the regard that it has a similar feel to shell scripting. Then I decided
that since Tk was the default GUI for Ruby - sort of - and I remembered
that I made some simple Tcl/Tk gui’s before, I would use Tk again. Fine.
But then I find out that the “interface” to Tk is very
different…8-(. Then I start to look for docs on how to use it
… you know, like a tutorial.
I apologize in advance - a good tutorial is not a small project…
but the “tutorials” for Ruby/Tk are SAD. In fact, it would be more
accurate to say that there aren’t any. Maybe I should look at using some
sort of ruby-to-web-browser interface… But to tell someone to “go read
a Perl/Tk book” is doing Ruby a disservice. Some people will think
"…I might as well use Perl then". Below is an approximation of what I
think would be a help. If some of you more experienced with Ruby/Tk,
maybe we can band together and put out the beginings of a
tutorial…like what is below:
[ This is a shade long but I want to show the kind of progression that is
needed - please be patient ]
One that ( like other GUI tutorials ) starts out by saying - Ok. Here is
the root window. It does this.
you put things in the root window. Here is a window with a button.
Notice that when you run in Unix / X , that even though you copied the
example WITH a title:
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'tk’
root = TkRoot.new() { title “Click the Button” }
…
Tk.mainloop
you will not see the title. Here is WHY: Yada Yada Yada.
Here is the same code with x y z.
A button usually has an action associated with it. Sometimes people will
refer to the ACTION as a "CALLBACK."
Here is how it works.
Now let’s talk about a script that has a text entry. When you enter a
word into the text entry widget, it will convert the word to UPPER CASE.
Here is the code… WITH COMMENTS 8-). Notice that we put the
widgets in a Frame. A frame is for …
Now let’s make it a 2 field Name - Phone number type of GUI - no lookup
features - that is the Next version in Chapter 3.
For now we will just add another text field and OK & Cancel buttons.
[End]
With Tk so prevalent, why isn't there something like this for Ruby.
Every BOOK I have seen on Amazon got ONE chapter for Tk. Not even 15
pages. Most Tcl/Tk books have 50+ pages…
Ok, guys… I’m done for now. I will help produce one if I can get
the help I need to learn it… no sense in just complaining… 
Thanks,
Greg
from my beginner pov, since at the