For anyone who’s interested in developing GUIs that use Unicode, I’m
translating a post I made to the Japanese ruby mailing list just now.
I want to make a GUI program that writes Japanese characters. Which
GUI toolkit (FXRuby, Tk, FLTK, etc.) should I use?
I tried various GUI toolkits. My conclusions:
FOX: Has no Unicode support.
FLTK: Unicode support is bad. For example, if there is Unicode text in
a Fltk::Input field, the cursor positioning is incorrect.
Tk: Even a simple program that uses Ruby/Tk is too slow. I think it’s
because Ruby/Tk doesn’t call Tk directly; it calls it using Tcl/Tk.
Qt: A good toolkit that supports Unicode. Execution speed is fast. But
when distributing a Ruby/Qt program, I also have to distribute
qt-mt230nc.dll(2,715,648b) and qt2.so(1,744,965b).
Ruby/Qt is still an Alpha version, but that is mostly not a problem.
Other than that and the problem of distribution, I think Ruby/Qt has
no weak points.
Speaking of the distribution problem, FOX also requires
fox.so(4,464,709b). In the case of FLTK, it only needs
rubyfltk.so(649,216b). If FLTK’s Unicode support is completed, it will
be a good thing.
Philip Mak wrote:
[snip]
Speaking of the distribution problem, FOX also requires
fox.so(4,464,709b). In the case of FLTK, it only needs
rubyfltk.so(649,216b). If FLTK’s Unicode support is completed, it will
be a good thing.
What about GTK? I think GTK2 supports Unicode. Is there support for
GTK in Ruby?
What about wxWindows, too? What stage is wxRuby at?
···
–
Giuseppe “Oblomov” Bilotta
“Da grande lotterò per la pace”
“A me me la compra il mio babbo”
(Altan)
(“When I grow up, I will fight for peace”
“I’ll have my daddy buy it for me”)
What about GTK? I think GTK2 supports Unicode. Is there support for
GTK in Ruby?
There’s a project called Ruby/GTK
(http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/raa-list.rhtml?name=Ruby%2FGTK) that
seems to be usable, although not complete. However, GTK doesn’t work
on Windows.
What about wxWindows, too? What stage is wxRuby at?
According to http://sourceforge.net/projects/wxruby/ they haven’t
released any files yet, so it’s vaporware at this time.
Giuseppe Bilotta wrote:
What about wxWindows, too? What stage is wxRuby at?
wxRuby is still a little ways off. We have a very alpha wxRuby working under
Windows (with some problems), and it has yet to tried on other platforms.
After the Ruby conference we are going to build a test harness and create a
suite of tests to help weed out the bugs and aid in testing on other
platforms.
Bottom line… its coming, but its not here yet.
Curt
There is a Windows port of GTK. Do you have first hand knowledge that
it doesn’t work?
···
On Tue, Oct 22, 2002 at 08:53:39AM +0900, Philip Mak wrote:
What about GTK? I think GTK2 supports Unicode. Is there support for
GTK in Ruby?
There’s a project called Ruby/GTK
(http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/raa-list.rhtml?name=Ruby%2FGTK) that
seems to be usable, although not complete. However, GTK doesn’t work
on Windows.
–
Matt Gushee When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA Horses bear manure through
mgushee@havenrock.com its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/ When a nation ignores the Way,
Horses bear soldiers through
its streets.
--Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)
If you need testers for Linux, I could help. Is it hosted anywhere yet?
···
On Tue, Oct 22, 2002 at 11:05:12AM +0900, Curt Hibbs wrote:
Giuseppe Bilotta wrote:
What about wxWindows, too? What stage is wxRuby at?
wxRuby is still a little ways off. We have a very alpha wxRuby working under
Windows (with some problems), and it has yet to tried on other platforms.
After the Ruby conference we are going to build a test harness and create a
suite of tests to help weed out the bugs and aid in testing on other
platforms.
Bottom line… its coming, but its not here yet.
Curt
–
Alan Chen
Digikata LLC
http://digikata.com
Philip Mak wrote:
What about GTK? I think GTK2 supports Unicode. Is there support for
GTK in Ruby?
There’s a project called Ruby/GTK
(http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/raa-list.rhtml?name=Ruby%2FGTK) that
seems to be usable, although not complete. However, GTK doesn’t work
on Windows.
It does. I’m using at least three programs that run under GTK: xchat,
the Gimp and Sylpheed-Claws. Yes, they aren’t hard-rock stable, but
more or less functioning.
What about wxWindows, too? What stage is wxRuby at?
According to http://sourceforge.net/projects/wxruby/ they haven’t
released any files yet, so it’s vaporware at this time.
No stuff in the CVS either? (Oh, ok, I’ll look at it myself …)
···
–
Giuseppe “Oblomov” Bilotta
“Da grande lotterò per la pace”
“A me me la compra il mio babbo”
(Altan)
(“When I grow up, I will fight for peace”
“I’ll have my daddy buy it for me”)
GTK doesn’t work on Windows.
There is a Windows port of GTK. Do you have first hand knowledge that
it doesn’t work?
GTK+ 1.3 and 2.0 work on Windows, however they’re both quite unstable
(freezing/crashing occasionally). My first hand experience is from
forcing my friends to play FreeCiv with me on their Windows boxes. 
···
–
Greg McIntyre
greg@puyo.cjb.net
http://puyo.cjb.net
Alan Chen wrote:
If you need testers for Linux, I could help. Is it hosted anywhere yet?
We can definitely use help testing under Linux. We are hosted on savannah
(with a sourceforge mirror), but nothing is checked in yet. It is still too
preliminary.
Go to our wiki at www.wxruby.org (which at the me moment, is just a shell
with not real content), click on “Meet the Developers” and add yourself to
the list with a note that you are interested in testing under Linux. Then I
will contact you when we get to that point.
Curt
PS
Until the Ruby conference, work on wxRuby has been put on hold because we
are going all out to get a release of the FreeRIDE IDE ready for the
conference.