tsumeruby
2/18/2006 6:06:00 AM
On Saturday 18 February 2006 02:21 pm, Scott Weeks wrote:
> Why not just build the front end of the app in a windows language
> (C++,VB,...) and then expose the APIs so that you can build the
> business logic in Ruby?
>
Well, you are welcomed to use the Windows C API to build your applications,
however designing the application might be a task.
> Honestly as good as Ruby is for so many things it's not the language to
> be building GUI's in. TK and QT etc... always feel clunky compared to
> native windows or mac apps. I know there's a Ruby- Objective C bridge
> for the Mac but I don't know what's available for windows.
>
Many developers writing software for other operating systems feel the APIs
used to write GUI based software with GTK, QT, and Tk are very suitable. Of
course people care about look, but if look is so important you want to
capture the exact feel, then the programmer should be using the
supported/managed languages for the specified OS. Windows would be using
the .NET languages. On MacOSX Objective-C, the application language, should
be used to write software. However, users don't expect native look, they
expect a easy to use interface. Sure, you've read the articles on how making
your own pixmap GUI interface renders the program useless, but only because
people have been writing about the interfaces which fail. The only person who
is accountable for making a bad interface is the programmer itself. There are
several pixmaps interfaces which work very well. I know printers now have the
LCD when you want to perform some task, those are well designed GUI
interfaces. There is the Jasc photo imaging software meant for the user,
TheraWriter.PT is another good example which doesn't use standard GUI
guidelines, Dentrix is another great example for having a decent mouse based
interface to describe the teeth of a patient. Native look has absolutely
nothing to do with making a good application, just a convenience. Even using
a toolkit like WideStudio, a good application interface may be created. I
believe many programmers try blame the software on bad interfaces, when the
one accountable is the programmer itself.
Tsume