Monkeybars is a JRuby and Swing-based library that allows developers to create GUI applications quickly and easily.
Monkeybars aims to enable users to continue using the GUI editing tools they're used to while also making it easy to write Ruby code. With most editors, you'll never need to look at the Java code, as Monkeybars abstracts that away for you. This feature allows for an efficient process when creating GUI applications.
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that has syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. It originated in Japan in the mid-1990s and was designed and developed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto. Ruby supports multiple programming paradigms that include functional, object-oriented, and imperative features. It has a dynamic type system and automatic memory management, which makes it similar to Python, Perl, Lisp, Dylan, and CLU.
Ruby has several alternative implementations that include Rubinius, JRuby, YARV, and IronRuby, among others. The current official implementation of Ruby is a single-pass interpreted language written in C, making it a de facto reference. Since there's currently no specification of the Ruby language, this implementation serves as the reference.
Monkeybars requires Ruby to function. The latest stable version of the reference implementation as of December 2007 is 1.8.6. There are several other virtual machines being developed for Ruby, such as JRuby, an implementation for the Java platform, IronRuby for the .NET framework produced by Microsoft, and Rubinius, an interpreter modeled after self-hosting Smalltalk virtual machines.
In the latest release of Monkeybars, the syntax of define_signal has been changed, and the old version has been deprecated. Unhandled signals now throw an UndefinedSignalError, and multiple handlers can be registered on a given Swing component. There has also been a performance improvement in implicit handler registration, and various bug fixes. These updates make Monkeybars an even more powerful tool for creating GUI applications.
Version 0.6.2: N/A