Korundum Brings eXtreme RAD to Linux

anonymous writes "The Free Software community is on a quest for the next generation development environment. Is it .Net, is it Java? Many (including Havoc) are quick to dismiss some of the gems invented by the Free Software community itself. Yes, Ruby is an incredibly consistent and clean language designed specifically to incorporate many of the best features and ideas of predecessors. Absolutely everything in Ruby is an object and practically everything can be redefined or extended on the fly. The effects and resulting power of such flexibility can be quite astounding to those who have adapted to contemporary language limitations. Now, the Ruby environment has been seamlessly integrated into KDE through Korundum, meaning that well-integrated and first-class desktop citizens for Linux can be sketched and developed in an extremely short time. Caveat: No explicit compilation is required and programming seems so easy it feels like cheating."

Comments

Count in one new Ruby fanatic

[weeksie]

I've been using Ruby a short time and will say that without a doubt it is the nicest language I've used for development of anything. period. Now of course some people work differently and prefer different languages but I have fallen in love with it.

After a long, long time mired in the quagmire of Java configuration files and the like I finally gave it a go with a small project (an app server). It took me roughly a tenth of the time it would have in Java and I'll gladly shoulder the cost of slower execution speeds with a little more processor power :)

Re:The name

[hoggoth]

I am KSick of this KStupid KNaming Konvention.
It McReminds me another McStupid McNaming McConvention.

Re:Meh?

[Anonymous Coward]

JRuby is a ruby implentation for the java JVM, it isn't a binding. The current ruby implementation isn't a byte code interpreter, it evaluates the AST at runtime. Alex Kellett the QtRuby/Korundum co-author is working on a ruby JIT project called Rubydium.

-- Richard

Aaargh

[Estanislao Mart�nez]

Maybe the code in the Qt/Ruby tutorial linked indirectly from this article (through this page) isn't representative of the bindings. But if it is, I will be terribly disappointed.

One of the best features of Ruby is code blocks. I've skimmed through maybe half of that tutorial, and there are no code blocks in sight.

Now you may wonder why should anybody care about this. Well, simple: there are many, many ways of using Ruby's blocks to make code easier to understand. In the case of a GUI toolkit, I can think of two offhand:

1. Callbacks. The quickest, simple way to implement a callback is to pass a block as a closure to the widget at construction time.
2. Representing the embedding of GUI components inside one another. The tutorial code as written works by assigning a variable to a newly instantiated container, then creating contained pieces and including them inside the container by calling methods on the previously created container. All of the pieces occur in the same level of indentation, and the formatting does not make obvious the containment hierarchy of components.

   Creating contained components in a code block passed to the container is no harder at all; in Ruby, just make the container's constructor yield self to its block. And what you gain is much nicer than what most people will give credit for: the code that creates the contained elements is visibly "inside" the code that creates the container. Once you're attuned to this convention, it becomes easier to see the structure of the GUI and the code from the indentation in the source.

Re:Is it ok as a beginner's langage ?

[CatGrep]

So, is it ok as a beginner langage ?

For a tutorial, check out Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby, or if that's just a bit too bizarre you might have a look at this Ruby tutorial.