Monkeybars: easy cross platform GUIs
summary
Claims that commercial desktop Ruby apps are practical today using JRuby + Swing and the Monkeybars library, with generators that create autowired MVC sets, naming‑convention event handlers, and simple unit tests that only exercise models. Demonstrates raar packaging to produce executable .jar, Mac .app and Windows .exe bundles, uses H2 DB and a shipped app (jbot) as evidence, and compiles Ruby into compiled RB classfiles to make source recovery harder while keeping performance acceptable.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Desktop Ruby development intro
- 3:23Java and JRuby for GUIs
- 6:14Swing over other toolkits
- 8:24MonkeyBars architecture and MVC
- 10:07Hello World demo
- 22:13Event handling and testing
- 27:12Unit testing GUI apps
- 32:20Generators and nested components
- 35:34Cross-platform distribution
- 44:34Securing Ruby code
- 48:29Commercial success with JRuby
- 51:41Q&A
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