Shoes News: Free Shoes Books and Applications For Everyone!
It seems that Why The Lucky Stiff's cross-platform, GUI application development environment, Shoes, is going from strength to strength! In the last several months, lots of new Shoes applications have been developed, and in the last couple of weeks there have been some interesting developments, such as Nobody Knows Shoes entering the public domain, and "The Shoebox," a Shoes application repository, going live.
Note: Six months ago, there was a compilation post on Ruby Inside with links to Shoes related tutorials which is still worth referring to.
Nobody Knows Shoes - The Official Shoes Manual - Goes Free!
Nobody Knows Shoes, the official guide to Shoes, was released in paperback form a few months ago, available to buy via Lulu.com where you can still pick up this gem for a mere $5.57.
As of March 1st, 2008, Why has released the guide into the public domain and it's now also available to read online for free (as well as in PDF format.) Nobody Knows Shoes is well worth the read not only if you're interested in Shoes, but if you like Why's particular brand of illustration, design, and humor.
The Shoebox - A Shoes Application Repository
The Shoebox is a new site dedicated to hosting Shoes-based applications. Currently there are 22 applications and games, including Tetris, Othello (known as Shoethello), Go, Conway's Game of Life, and lots of graphics demos. Most of these work cross-platform and are great demonstrations of both the power of Shoes and Ruby.
March 4, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Man, if they can get HacketyHack done (Shoes was a new requirement that slowed it down), this could be an awesome, fun instruction tool for kids and for newbies, alike.
Go, Hackety!
March 4, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Maybe I've missed the point, but unless it's possible to demonstrate from this something that resembles an application that delivers something tangible in the business world, then what's the purpose?
Ruby is a superb language, especially when combined with bindings such as QT, Adobe Flex/Air, or even Swing via JRuby, so why try to reinvent the wheel?
March 4, 2008 at 11:00 pm
It'd be a sad day when programming is only any good for, or judged on the merits of, commercial use. Thankfully, Why is not about commercialism in the slightest.
March 4, 2008 at 11:33 pm
"It’d be a sad day when programming is only any good for, or judged on the merits of, commercial use".
I agree with the sentiment, but in the real world the ability to deliver applications that provide user friendly (modern) front ends to otherwise complex (commercial or otherwise) applications is where we need to be. I thinks Shoes has some serious potential, but lets leverage the power of Ruby and showcase something thats more compelling than a bunch of 80's games.
Great book by the way!
March 5, 2008 at 2:17 am
"I agree with the sentiment, but in the real world the ability to deliver applications that provide user friendly (modern) front ends to otherwise complex (commercial or otherwise) applications is where we need to be."
I don't think Shoes is targeted at that audience, judging form the surreal documentation...
Besides, trying to fit Shoes into that box is like using Etch-a-Sketch for classic art. (wrong medium)
March 5, 2008 at 12:08 pm
"I thinks Shoes has some serious potential, but lets leverage the power of Ruby and showcase something thats more compelling than a bunch of 80’s games."
Well, the Shoes demos are submitted by users, and if you think there is nothing on the website that uses the "power of Ruby", why not just create it? Seems to be a blank canvas waiting to be filled.
March 5, 2008 at 3:14 pm
It's projects like Shoes that could help get a new generation interested in programming and build all those systems we'll need when we're old, gray, and unable to do it any more :)
March 6, 2008 at 9:22 pm
"Maybe I’ve missed the point, but unless it’s possible to demonstrate from this something that resembles an application that delivers something tangible in the business world, then what’s the purpose?"
Not everyone who uses ruby is a professional coder, a few of us code for fun.
"Ruby is a superb language, especially when combined with bindings such as QT, Adobe Flex/Air, or even Swing via JRuby, so why try to reinvent the wheel?"
Bindings are usually painful, particularly when you have to learn a whole new language to use them. What makes Shoes so nice is that it is a ruby framework - it has actually encouraged me to learn more about ruby!