Markus Jais wrote:
> ...
> I think the standard GUI for Ruby should have the following characteristics
> 
> - portable between Unix (include Linux and Mac OS X) and Windows

For some reason, I think that this means two different things to the
Unix user and Windows user.

It seems to me that people who don't use windows much tend to not
care too much about look/feel of a 'portable' application. At the 
same time, Windows users don't tend to care about portability too 
much ;-)

I use windows for my work station, and linux for my web server.
If I ever make a windows application with Ruby, I will do so not
so much as a hobby, but with a prospective distributable product in
mind. And as such, it is quite important that it looks and feels
like other windows applications. In other words, that it have/use
native widgets etc. And it should not crash the system excessively,
or be too slow. In other words, it should use native widgets. It should
not look foreign and make the prospective end user think it isn't
the 'real' thing. In other words, it should use native widgets.

As for portability, there is no real GUI portability between unix and
windows, as far as I am concerned. Sure, it is possible to write
code that works on both using the existing portability provided.
But that was not provided to solve the issue of making professional
GUI applications that simultaneously work on both unix and windows.

And professional applications for windows using ruby is precisely what 
I am waiting for.

This issue came up at the conference last year. It is relevant
to the current poll at rubygarden.org, also. And it is likely
even related to the tar.gz/zip issue recently discussed.

Not everyone cares about that performance, and not everyone is
willing to pay for something they are just playing around with. 
Fine, those people can continue with Tk and similar approaches.

But although Ruby is founded in Linux, if it is to be useful for
the 'masses' and a candidate for paid work/jobs, then it will
have to be provided with a windows-specific approach.

I don't think there can be one standard GUI for both unix and windows
that will satisfy the windows community. There will have to be a 
standard for windows separate from whatever is used on other OS
platforms, from my perspective.


Guy N. Hurst