Home > News > 04.08 Glimmer Enables Efficient Authoring of Desktop UI
Glimmer enables efficient authoring of desktop UI
When people think about Ruby they most often associate it with the development of Ruby on Rails and Web 2.0 applications. Ruby simply hasn't been a practical option for writing native desktop applications until now. Enter Glimmer, a JRuby DSL that enables easy and efficient authoring of complex user interfaces with less than half the code.
"Having been involved in the development of several desktop applications using VB6, MFC C++, and Java, and seeing the wonderful productivity gains realized by Ruby on Rails for Web 2.0 applications, it was natural to seek a desktop application development solution that took advantage of Ruby to build native desktop user-interfaces. JRuby and SWT offered the opportunity and Glimmer was born," said Obtiva Sr. Consultant and Glimmer creator, Andy Maleh.
Leveraging JRuby and the robust platform-independent Eclipse SWT library makes Glimmer accessible to Java developers. Although the compact API is based on Ruby's programming paradigms, seasoned Java and SWT developers are also discovering that Glimmer delivers significant productivity benefits.
Glimmer currently supports rendering widgets and adding event listeners. According to Maleh, built-in data-binding support that will facilitate synchronizing UI with domain models is in the works. With a clean wrapper around the SWT libraries and customizable smart defaults Glimmer offers a promising new option for desktop application development.
Read Andy’s blog at http://andymaleh.blogspot.com/2007/11/sneak-peak-at-glimmer.html.