What's the best/easiest GUI Library for Ruby?

Question

Whats the best/easiest GUI library out there for Ruby?

I would prefer a cross-platform GUI library, but currently I'm only concerned about Windows (Win32). I am having difficulting finding any that seem to be easy to use. Are there any?

Solution 1

Ruby Shoes (by why) is intended to be a really simple GUI framework. I don't know how fully featured it is, though.

Some good code samples can be found in the tutorials.

Also, I think shoes powers hackety hack, a compelling programming learning environment for youngsters.

Solution 2

Here is a good resource for you:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ruby_Programming/GUI_Toolkit_Modules

has links comparing basically all of them.

Solution 3

I started with FXRuby because it had a book.

Solution 4

I recently started using Qt as a GUI framework for a Ruby application. There is a binding called QtRuby. For a quickstart tutorial (covers only windows) see this post

Solution 5

Limelight I really enjoy the theatre metaphor.

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Comments

[knoopx]

_why left the internets with all his works

[knoopx]

where do you find it now whytheluckstiff is gone?

[dwo]

And FXRuby is part of the Ruby one-click-installer on Windows!

[Pete Hodgson]

AFAIK shoes.heroku.com is the new post-_why home for all things shoes.

[ap2]

the rubyforge monkeybars link is old, and makes you think the project's abandoned; better go to the project main site (monkeybars.org), or the github page (github.com/monkeybars/monkeybars-core)

[Alexander]

The version at shoesrb.com/downloads is "3", while the latest version at github.com/shoes/shoes/downloads is "3.1.0", while "gem install shoes" installs "3.0.1". What's up with the versoning pandemonium? Is this because _why disappeared?

[karatedog]

Shoes is not made for production environment but for fun, it is the "turtle graphic" of Ruby. It is intended for newbies to get acquainted with 1.) domain specific language, 2.) graphics

[peter]

Have you other examples than the one and only calculator demo ? Nothing moves at their website

[Dane Balia]

For anyone who has anyone intention of using Ruby Shoes, don't. It's buggy and the support is limited. It promises so much but delivers so little. This is because the author has 'disappeared' and leaves behind what appears to be a 3/4 complete project. It doesn't look that way at the start, but when your code starts to get serious, it will not live up to what it promises. Seriously, RUN!

[rogerdpack]

as a note I like jruby + swing. At least it's sane :)

[peter]

hey knoopx, shoes is alive and kicking, check version 4 out

[iconoclast]

Why can't you develop with the OS version and switch? The same code won't work with both versions? Entirely different APIs or something?

[Kishy Nivas]

@DaneBalia it's been six years, has anything changed with shoes now?

[Dane Balia]

@KishyNivas Quite right, thank you. Shoes.rb is now in version 4 and in preview. It looks like worth the shot with an active community of 70.