[snip my stuff] > Whether it ends up in the FAQ or not, I think that would be an amazing > service to the Ruby-using community. I don't know how you planned to > approach it, but one method might be to have the code speak for itself: > create a simple sample app using the various toolkits, show the code > and give a screenshot of the result. (people love screenshots) > Anything you come up with would be great though. Thanks for proposing > this. There is a number of great GUI toolkits, I'd say scarcity is fortunately not the case when it comes to creating GUIs in Ruby. Unfortunately, the wide range of options seems to be a recurring problem when you face the task of getting started anew with your first GUI-based application in Ruby. There are some good tutorials or sets of code examples out there covering the most popular GUI toolkits in Rubyland, written by knowledgeable developers who are the individuals that know every corner, every limitation, and every trick of their mñÕier. Some of them are the ones for Ruby TK, FXRuby, ruby-gnome2, QT/Ruby, SWin/VuRuby, Ruby/Cocoa, WxRuby, FLTK, RubyWise, ParaGUI, Widestudio, Apollo, and perhaps many others (please let us know which others have active Ruby users reading this maillist) Hal Fulton and I once toyed with the idea of writing a book on Ruby GUIs, and I believe that's not a bad idea at all judging from the evident need in that field, yet probably not as popular as to generate revenue for publishers. Given the complexity and ambitiousness of a project covering all these toolkits, I think a different approach is due. I like the way PLEAC was created, (Programming Language Examples Alike Cookbook) and I think the approach the PLEAC guys followed could work very well in this case. I'm thinking sort of a PLEAC for Ruby GUIs. That would be something like "PGEAR": Programming GUI Examples Alike in Ruby In my idea, a PGEAR team would create a basic list of placeholders for GUI programming examples. A reference implementation should be provided for at least two Ruby GUI toolkits. so that other knowledgeable developers who use other toolkits are able to reproduce the a functionally equivalent example for their own toolkits. Example: 1) Hello World window with a button 1.1) implementation in Gtk2, QT, Fox, TK, Wx, etc. 1.2) screenshots Still, a set of code examples may not be enough for complex tasks. I would divide the PGEAR in sections, by order of complexity. A) Brief description of each toolkit, pros and cons, in which platforms they work, whether they are internationalisable, where to get them, how to install them B) Simple widget examples ( la Hello World, Window creation, basic event management, basic widget set demonstration, this is the PLEAC-like section) C) Compound widget examples ( tabbed panes, treeviews, grids/tables, here most GUI toolkits differ in their approach) D) Mixing it all, Practical guide (create a Konqueror/Finder/Explorer/Nautilus-like user interface, create an Outlook/Thunderbird/Evolution-like user interface, etc.) E) Other (features that are unique to a given toolkit) F) Troubleshooting, etc. (problems commonly found, multihreading issues, event handling, custom widget development, etc.) Lately, I like the way manuals end up laid out using Hieraki, especially the ones in Jamis Buck's Bookshelf... that would be the editing model I would follow, but then that's just my personal taste, others may differ. Please note, that there have been attempts before to document GUI toolkits in the Rubysphere, to various degrees of success and accuracy: http://freeride.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl?GUIFrameworkProject/GUIComparison http://rubygarden.org/ruby?WhichGuiShouldIUse http://rubygarden.org/ruby?ComparingGuiToolkits http://rubygarden.org/ruby?DoYourRubyGUIResearch http://trug.stok.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Ruby_GUI_Toolkits http://rubygarden.org/ruby?ComparingGuiToolkits/TakeTwo http://rubygarden.org/ruby?GeneralGUIComments Maybe, given enough time and if there's enough support, a comprehensive index/howto/cookbook can be compiled. As there is loads and loads of work to be done, I propose people who are interested AND ARE willing to COLLABORATE to please sign this wikipage: http://rubygarden.org/ruby?RubyGUI cheers, vruz