simple_tk

SimpleTk

I wanted a really simple GUI library for Ruby. Not because I think Ruby should be used for GUI applications, but because I think it should be able to tbe used for GUI applications.

Really I wanted something to make a quick configuration app using an existing Ruby gem I had written. I started out with a simple console app, but I decided I wanted something even simpler for the eventual day when somebody else has to use it.

So I searched. First I found Shoes. Which would be acceptable except Shoes 3 does not have a gem and Shoes 4 requires JRuby. Ok moving on, we have several other libraries that interface with other libraries. And then Tk, which is from the Ruby code base. So time to learn Tk, which turns out has a lot of repeated steps and code. Well that's easy enough to correct. I wrote a quick wrapper and built my config app.

I extracted that wrapper and built it up to support more than just labels, entries, and buttons. This gem is the end result of that action.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'simple_tk'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install simple_tk

Usage

You can build windows using either a block passed to a window constructor or by calling the methods on the created window. Call SimpleTk.run to run your application. You can use SimpleTk.alert and SimpleTk.ask for basic message boxes. In all cases, the Tk library is available if you need more advanced options.

require 'simple_tk'
  
win = SimpleTk::Window.new(title: "My Program", window_geometry: "400x300") do
  add_label :label1, "Hello World!", :column => 0, :row => 0
  add_frame(:frame1, :column => 0, :row => 1) do
    add_button(:btn1, "Button 1", :position => [ 0, 0 ]) do
      SimpleTk.alert "You clicked Button 1!"
    end
    add_button :btn2,
        "Button 2",
        :position => { x: 1, y: 0 },
        :command => ->{ SimpleTk.alert "You clicked Button 2!" }
  end
end
  
win.add_label :label2, "Goodby World!", :column => 0, :row => 2
  
win.config_column 0, weight: 1
  
(0..win.row_count).each do |row|
  win.config_row row, weight: 1
end
  
# Use the Tk 'bind' method on the :btn2 object.  
win.object[:frame1].object[:btn2].bind("3") do
  SimpleTk.alert "You right-clicked on Button 2!"  
end
  
SimpleTk.run

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/barkerest/simple_tk.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.