Glimmer DSL for GTK

Yes, I've done it! I built an entire Glimmer DSL in one day! I built Glimmer DSL for GTK after receiving an issue request for it on the Glimmer project page on GitHub!

Enjoy reading the README below!

Happy Glimmering!

Glimmer DSL for GTK 0.0.1

Ruby-GNOME Desktop Development GUI Library

Glimmer DSL for GTK enables building desktop applications with Ruby-GNOME.

GTK (aka GIMP-Toolkit or [incorrectly] GNOME-Toolkit) is the premiere desktop GUI toolkit on Linux, which also runs on Mac (Quartz GTK+) and Windows.

Glimmer DSL for GTK aims to supercharge productivity and maintainability in developing Ruby-GNOME applications by providing a DSL similar to Glimmer DSL for SWT having:

• Declarative DSL syntax that visually maps to the GUI widget hierarchy
• Convention over configuration via smart defaults and automation of low-level details
• Requiring the least amount of syntax possible to build GUI
• Custom Keyword support
• Bidirectional Data-Binding to declaratively wire and automatically synchronize GUI with Business Models
• Scaffolding for new custom widgets, apps, and gems
• Native-Executable packaging on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Hello, World!

window {
  title 'Hello, World!'

  label('Hello, World!')
}.show

Mac Screenshot:

NOTE: Glimmer DSL for GTK is currently in early alpha mode (incomplete proof-of-concept). Please help make better by contributing, adopting for small or low risk projects, and providing feedback. It is still an early alpha, so the more feedback and issues you report the better.

Other Glimmer DSL gems you might be interested in:

• glimmer-dsl-swt: Glimmer DSL for SWT (JRuby Desktop Development GUI Framework)
• glimmer-dsl-opal: Glimmer DSL for Opal (Pure Ruby Web GUI and Auto-Webifier of Desktop Apps)
• glimmer-dsl-tk: Glimmer DSL for Tk (MRI Ruby Desktop Development GUI Library)
• glimmer-dsl-libui: Glimmer DSL for Tk (Prerequisite-Free Ruby Desktop Development GUI Library)
• glimmer-dsl-xml: Glimmer DSL for XML (& HTML)
• glimmer-dsl-css: Glimmer DSL for CSS

Setup

Option 1: Install

Run this command to install directly:

gem install glimmer-dsl-gtk

Option 2: Bundler

Add the following to Gemfile:

gem 'glimmer-dsl-gtk', '~> 0.0.1'

And, then run:

bundle

Usage

Require the library and mixin the Glimmer module to utilize the Glimmer GUI DSL for GTK:

require 'glimmer-dsl-gtk'

include Glimmer

window {
  title 'Demo'

  on(:destroy) do
    puts 'Bye Bye'
    ::Gtk.main_quit
  end
}.show

For actual application development outside of simple demos, mixin the Glimmer module into an application class instead:

require 'glimmer-dsl-gtk'

class SomeGlimmerApplication
  include Glimmer

  def launch
    application('org.glimmer.hello-application', :flags_none) {
      on(:activate) do |app|
        application_window(app) {
          title 'Actual Application'
        }.present
      end
    }.run
  end
end

SomeGlimmerApplication.new.launch

Glimmer GUI DSL

• Keywords: All GTK widgets are supported via lowercase underscored names accepting their constructor args (e.g. application_window(app) for Gtk::ApplicationWindow.new(app)). Keywords can be nested under other keywords to represent the true hierarchy of nested widgets on the screen (e.g. window { label('Hello') } is a label nested under a window). Note that widget objects returned are proxies of the GTK widget counterparts. This shields consumers of GTK from its lower-level details via composition (Proxy Design Pattern). To access lower-level GTK widget, simply call #gtk method on widget proxy object (e.g. @w = window {...}; @w.gtk # Gtk::Window widget object).
• Content: widget keywords can have a block of content that could contain nested widget keywords, properties, and signals. The block can optionally receive one argument representing the widget (e.g. window {|w| ... }):
  • Properties: All GTK widget properties can be set via lowercase underscored names (without the 'set_' prefix) nested under widget keywords (e.g. window {title 'Hello, World'} sets title property of window)
  • Signals: All GTK signals can be wired with on(signal) { ... } syntax (e.g. on(:activate) { do_something })

Girb (Glimmer IRB)

You can run the girb command (bin/girb if you cloned the project locally):

girb

This gives you irb with the glimmer-dsl-gtk gem loaded and the Glimmer module mixed into the main object for easy experimentation with GUI.

Gotcha: On the Mac, when you close a window opened in girb, it remains open until you enter exit or open another GUI window.

Samples

Hello Samples

Hello, World!

samples/hello/hello_world.rb

Mac Screenshot:

Run (via installed gem):

ruby -r glimmer-dsl-gtk -e "require 'samples/hello/hello_world'"

Run (via locally cloned project):

ruby -r ./lib/glimmer-dsl-gtk.rb samples/hello/hello_world.rb

Code:

window {
  title 'Hello, World!'

  label('Hello, World!')
}.show

Hello, Application!

samples/hello/hello_application.rb

Mac Screenshot:

Run (via installed gem):

ruby -r glimmer-dsl-gtk -e "require 'samples/hello/hello_application'"

Run (via locally cloned project):

ruby -r ./lib/glimmer-dsl-gtk.rb samples/hello/hello_application.rb

Code:

require 'glimmer-dsl-gtk'

include Glimmer

application('org.glimmer.hello-application', :flags_none) {
  on(:activate) do |app|
    application_window(app) {
      title 'Hello, Application!'
    }.present
  end
}.run

Hello, Button!

samples/hello/hello_button.rb

Mac Screenshot:

Run (via installed gem):

ruby -r glimmer-dsl-gtk -e "require 'samples/hello/hello_button'"

Run (via locally cloned project):

ruby -r ./lib/glimmer-dsl-gtk.rb samples/hello/hello_button.rb

Code:

require 'glimmer-dsl-gtk'

include Glimmer

window { |w|
  title 'Hello, Button!'

  button('Button') {
    on(:clicked) do
      message_dialog(w) { |md|
        title 'Information'
        text 'You clicked the button'

        on(:response) do
          md.destroy
        end
      }.show
    end
  }
}.show

Hello, Entry!

samples/hello/hello_entry.rb

Mac Screenshot:

Run (via installed gem):

ruby -r glimmer-dsl-gtk -e "require 'samples/hello/hello_entry'"

Run (via locally cloned project):

ruby -r ./lib/glimmer-dsl-gtk.rb samples/hello/hello_entry.rb

Code:

require 'glimmer-dsl-gtk'

include Glimmer

window { |w|
  title 'Hello, Entry!'
  default_size 300, 50

  box(:vertical) {
    e = entry {
      on(:changed) do
        puts e.text
        $stdout.flush # For Windows
      end
    }

    button('Button') {
      on(:clicked) do
        message_dialog(w) { |md|
          title 'You entered'
          text e.text

          on(:response) do
            md.destroy
          end
        }.show
      end
    }
  }
}.show