((comp.lang.misc + cc: ruby-talk ML))

Andrew Hunt <andy / toolshed.com> wrote:

> I've had a couple of people express interest in helping with Ruby --
> writing new packages, extensions, and so on.
>
> What is *most* needed right now?  What sort of add-ons to Ruby would
> be most usefull (that aren't already being worked on, or that need
> extra help?)
>
> Any suggestions would be welcome!

Well one very useful aspect of Python is that it has a default/generic GUI
module called Tkinter, which various Python tools and applications use.
Tkinter might crudely be described as an OO wrapper for Tk. (There is a new
book dedicated to developing GUI applications with this module. But I
haven't seen a copy in the local bookstores yet.)

However, a recent survey/comparison of Python GUI modules,

    http://www.nl.linux.org/~gerrit/gui.html

indicates that there is growing support to supplant Tkinter with wxPython as
the default Python GUI. (There has been voluminous and intense discussion of
such Python GUI issues in the comp.lang.python newsgroup within the past
couple of week.)

Anyway, more information about wxWindows may be found here:

    http://www.wxwindows.org

I think it would be very useful to produce a Ruby/wxwin module for Ruby.
Since the wxPython module has been around for a while, it might be worth
looking into it for good ideas prior to doing a Ruby version. (I don't know
it there would be any problems with the C++ implementation of wxwindows
versus what I think is Ruby's primarily C interface support. I haven't
looked into either one. I'm sure the Pragmatic Duo could surmount any
problems here, if there are any.)

I also think it would be a very good thing to adopt such a module as the
default Ruby GUI, meaning that it would be included as part of the standard
distribution. This would make it much easier for people to develop, support,
and "sell" Ruby/GUI projects internally and externally. (Even more so if
there were a PGTR chapter on it. :-)

Conrad