Hey, Shoes folks. We all agree that Shoes has some stiff competition in other languages right? Python's got Nodebox, which is gorgeous. Java's got Processing, which is wonderful. And we've all been exhorted (by _why, at least, if not others) to be champions for these various fonts of creative programming, no matter where they may raise their heads.
So, inspired by ifhere's Dynamite (which isn't currently working), I've thrown together a quick wrapper for Processing, using JRuby. It makes Processing act in a slightly more Shoes-like way, and replaces the ol' crusty faux-Java-1.4- syntax sandals that Processing usually wears with some new Ruby slippers. As it turns out, some Shoes programs that don't make use of Shoes' nice interface features — like stacks, flows, and edit controls — can be run in ruby-processing with almost no changes at all. (The Wishyworm is the currently posted example of this.) Now I don't want to distract the Shoes community from running towards the goal of making Shoes the best darn windowing toolkit out there, but I think that we can learn from Processing, and everyone wins from having programs that can (for the most part) run on two platforms. Any ideas on how to make ruby-processing more Shoes-like, please leave in the Shoebox comments. And revisions are welcome. — Jeremy
