Ruby GUIs Are Dead… Or Are They?

Source: Dev.to

Background

I wanted to create a simple desktop app in Ruby—a GitHub stats fetcher that takes a username and displays their avatar, followers, and repositories. It sounded straightforward, but the reality of Ruby GUI development proved otherwise.

Available GUI Toolkits

• Tk – Essentially dead on modern Ruby.
• Shoes – A fun idea, but it has been abandoned; even the website is unreliable when downloading the executable.
• Scarpe / FXRuby / Qt – Either unstable, heavyweight, or impossible to set up.

My Experience with GTK3

I ultimately chose GTK3. It works across platforms and was easy to set up. While most other gems struggle with stability or installation, GTK3 provided a functional solution for my needs.

Conclusion

Ruby excels at scripting, APIs, and automation, but its GUI support is currently neglected. If you’re a Ruby developer or learning the language, don’t get discouraged. The tooling may be messy, but the language remains a joy to work with. With enough community interest, the Ruby GUI ecosystem could revive. In the meantime, GTK3 is a viable option for building desktop applications.