Jeff Hobbs wrote:

# Conrad Schneiker wrote: 

# > potentially great news for keeping Ruby/Tk viable.
# 
# I thought Ruby's language binding to Tk was complete.  I always have
# an open ear (or email box), although I have to admit I know nothing
# about the Ruby innards (Tk, OTOH, is a good friend).

My remark was in the context of previous c.l.r discussions about whether 
or not there would be significant future improvements to Tk, which is 
perceived by some-to-many as somewhat lagging other GUI contenders in 
terms of the range of *built-in*, *off-the-shelf* widgets. 

Ruby/Tk seems to me and others to be somewhat sluggish when compared to 
Ruby/GTK (or even Perl/Tk), although I haven't done any serious testing, 
and so this is a strictly tentative subjective impression. 

Maybe something like Tkinter 3000 would help out here 
(http://www.pythonware.com/products/tkinter/tkinter3000.htm):

# The Tkinter 3000 project attempts to create a better (faster,
# smaller) Tk interface, and provide ways to extend the Tkinter
# library with new widgets, geometry managers, and more.
# 
# The Tkinter 3000 Widget Construction Kit library (WCK) provides an
# extension API that allows you to implement all sorts of custom
# widgets, in pure Python. The WCK is designed to work with the
# existing Tkinter library, as well as the new Tkinter 3000 bindings.
# 
# The WCK is based on uiToolkit's extension API, and is designed to
# let you run new widgets under other toolkits as well (including
# uiToolkit, of course).
# 
# The Tkinter 3000 Tk Bindings library is a drop-in replacement for
# Tkinter. The current proof-of-concept implementation is typically
# 2-10 times faster than Tkinter, as shipped with Python 2.0.

Anyone around with the interest and experience to pursue this?
 
Jeff Hobbs also wrote:

# > # Tcl/Tk goes ActiveSTATE (see below). Shouldn't Ruby go ActiveSTATE
# > # too?
# > 
# > Sure (albeit cautiously so). But what would that involve in practice?
# > Likely that they would need to hire at least one very strong
# > low-level Ruby developer, and maybe take on Matz and the pragmatic
# 
# Well, one developer with confident knowledge of low-level Ruby would
# suffice to start.  The key is that relocation to Vancouver, BC would be
# something important. 

Well, I certainly hope you find someone. From what I've read and heard, 
Vancouver is one of the more beautiful city-proximate regions on earth.

Conrad Schneiker
(This note is unofficial and subject to improvement without notice.)