I've changed the subject line to reflect the current topic.....

Dave Thomas writes,

# "Conrad Schneiker" <schneik / us.ibm.com> writes:
# 
# > OK. I think most everyone would mostly agree that this is a
# > reasonably viable option to consider. But could you give us a better
# > idea of why you prefer FOX to other options, such as wxWindows and
# > GTK+ and Tkinter? Are there enough people working on core FOX that
# > it would clearly thrive if support by its corporate parent went
# > away? (c.f. Tk and Ajuba, where the rate and fate of future
# > development of Tk is not at all clear.)
# 
# From my perspective, I think FOX is worth considering because:
# 
# 1. It looks better than GTK, particularly to Windows users.
# 
# 2. Its Windows development is part of the main process, rather than 
#    a bolt-on project.

OK. And what about the rest of the question, e.g. wxWindows?

# Let's assume Ruby thrives, and that FOX becomes the GUI of choice
# for a new generation of Ruby developers. Should external support for
# FOX start to dry up, I'm guessing that folks in the Ruby community
# will step in and help.

Sort of like Perl and Python users did for Tk? :-)

# I think there is no clear winner in all this process,

I think that largely depends on how high you set the bar. After working 
though all of people's various primary concerns, I think you could 
probably get something like a 70-80% consensus about what the next major 
GUI step should be, especially since many people also want something that 
is tolerably *mutually* satisfactory. (With the understanding that it is a 
"next major step" not an "exclusive step" and not a "last step".) Of 
course it may take a while for such a consensus emerges....

Does anyone out there have any good feature/timetable/progress summary 
links to recommend for GTK 2.0?

At least one person has a *strong* requirement for Mac support now (an 
issue with FOX at present); is this a big issue for other people? (It 
would be useful to know how many Ruby-Mac users there are, and at which OS 
levels.) Any Mac users out there willing to do a FOX port?

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