Yes I am also sorry but I did not find something better
This worked for me.
I’ve had a little play with JRuby and the GridBagLayout seems easy enough to work with that you don’t need a visual designer.
java_import java.awt.event.ActionListener
java_import java.awt.Color
java_import java.awt.Cursor
java_import java.awt.Dimension
java_import java.awt.Font
java_import java.awt.GridBagLayout
java_import java.awt.GridBagConstraints
java_import java.awt.Insets
java_import javax.swing.JButton
java_import javax.swing.JFrame
java_import javax.swing.JTextArea
java_import javax.swing.SwingUtilities
# to drop/fill a widget in its cell(s)
class PreparedConstraint < GridBagConstraints
def initialize(row, col, rowspan = 0, colspan = 0)
super()
self.gridx = col
self.gridy = row
if colspan > 1
self.gridwidth = colspan
end
if rowspan > 1
self.gridheight = rowspan
end
self.fill = GridBagConstraints::BOTH
self.insets = Insets.new(5, 5, 0, 0)
end
end
# make buttons look nicer
class MetroButton < JButton
def initialize(buttoncaption, buttonstyle)
super(buttoncaption)
self.setForeground(Color::WHITE)
self.setBorderPainted(false)
self.setFocusPainted(false)
self.setCursor(Cursor.getPredefinedCursor(Cursor::HAND_CURSOR))
bgc = Color.decode("#2D89EF")
if buttonstyle == "alert"
bgc = Color.decode("#EE1111")
elsif buttonstyle == "secondary"
bgc = Color.decode("#2B5797")
elsif buttonstyle == "success"
bgc = Color.decode("#00A300")
elsif buttonstyle == "warning"
bgc = Color.decode("#E3A21A")
end
self.setBackground(bgc)
end
end
# an example window
class TopFrame < JFrame
def initialize
super("JRuby Test")
init_components()
pack()
set_visible(true)
end
def init_components()
set_default_close_operation(JFrame::EXIT_ON_CLOSE)
set_preferred_size(Dimension.new(600, 400))
gbl = GridBagLayout.new
# first and last col/row are just spacers
gbl.columnWidths = Array[ 10, 120, 120, 335, 15 ]
gbl.rowHeights = Array[ 10, 40, 340, 15 ]
# specify which cols/rows should stretch
gbl.columnWeights = Array[ 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0 ]
gbl.rowWeights = Array[ 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0 ]
content_pane = get_content_pane()
content_pane.setLayout(gbl)
# add some widgets
@btn1 = MetroButton.new("Button 1", "primary")
gbc = PreparedConstraint.new(1, 1)
content_pane.add(@btn1, gbc)
@btn2 = MetroButton.new("Button 2", "secondary")
gbc = PreparedConstraint.new(1, 2)
content_pane.add(@btn2, gbc)
@txt1 = JTextArea.new()
font = Font.new("Segoe Script", Font::BOLD, 20)
@txt1.set_font(font)
gbc = PreparedConstraint.new(2, 1, 0, 3)
content_pane.add(@txt1, gbc)
# assign event handlers
@btn1.addActionListener do |e|
self.click_event(e)
end
@btn2.addActionListener do |e|
self.click_event(e)
end
end
def click_event(e)
command = "You clicked " + e.getActionCommand()
@txt1.set_text(command)
end
end
SwingUtilities.invoke_later do
TopFrame.new
end
Jruby is Slow as hell
“It’s important to be realistic: most people don’t care about program performance most of the time. Modern computers are so fast that most programs run fast enough even with very slow language implementations”
Right now I just want to find a nice working combination of IDE / GUI designer that a demo of a web app actually works in 
Tried one in NetBeans using glassfish
Created a web application project. Compiled then bitched about cant run for some reason I have no idea how to fix.
On to trial # 2 using the Payara server
Its all this f*ing around that pees me off
Give me a set up that I can download. Install. Works
Thats not really so hard is it ?
2 Likes
Trial # 2 failed
ARG !!!
Thats the ZULU JDK 15 it complains about
OK turns out I have 3 JDK’s and the JDK 11 works !
I have a hello world app running !
2 Likes
JFI Amazon offers its own LTS version of OpenJDK.
Xojo web?
Your experience is much like mine. I can only waste so much time fiddling with tool chains. If Xojo web were more robust it would be such an obvious choice for someone like me.
4 Likes
I’m using Xojo Web 2 which is why I’m looking at other tools
IntelliJ, JFormDesigner and web swing MAY be the trio for me for web apps
Although I did get to the point with NetBeans where it has a layout editor running, drag drop GUI editor and is very much like Xojo/VB in terms of how it works
And you can toggle back and forth between design & code vies of the layout
Just not sure how that works when I want to make it be a web app BUT if its Swing then I could use WebSwing
Something I have yet to tinker with
past/future
i’m using Xojo (Mac desktop then Windows) and continue to do so
learned Golang for couple months for making APIs using Xojo desktop
we will use Vue JS and Ionic for mobile, considering flutter too.
I’ve read many post here, i didn’t see any about electron ?
Some people mention B4i or something, just checked 2 min, i don’t see how it can compete with xojo
nobody’s using ionic ? nobody likes js ? (no electron no ionic;))
- xojo is s special product, and we have to deal with it. RAD Xplat softwares are rare, we don’t see now new competitors to market since apps went to desktop to js in some way…so i’m guessing if xojo ceased to exist, it won’t be replace by anything.
… and there is your problem in a nutshell … 
1 Like
? why because it does ? i’m on mac
So am I. Since when was that a problem? Heard of VirtualBox? VMware? Parallels?
C’mon Markus - you an I both know that @dalu didn’t connect your inference that he hadn’t spent long enough looking into B4x.
Would probably be easier just to have stated that after his follow-up (mis-pointed) question…
My understanding of his post is that he is looking for an alternative IDE on Mac, of which he has not found an alternative. As the B4X IDE is Windows only, he stopped looking into it after 2 minutes and did not discover its many features (and stability!). With e.g. my BANano library, one can use the same B4X language to transpile to pure VueJS and JavaScript.
2 Likes
yes indeed, thanks you for summarising 
plus i use macbook as primary dev for linux, postgres golang ect, who wants to spend 10 hours in parallel seriously ?
i have 3 Hacktintosh, so it means windows
but I looked the about, seems a single guy doing it with limited resources
so the question here is why B4X should be a replacement for xojo ? does it even have the capabilities ?
seems like many, banned or not ;), people searching alternative for xojo, but it doesn’t exist.
i rember when xcode got out with swift, i said yes cool, tried it couple hours, was full of bugs,
i think the whole american software industry is releasing betas, look the gaming industry it’s particulary true…
i think the main competitor for xojo now is electron which can make things like postman, discord slack, spotify ect…it goes with the historical mouvement of making nice js/html content
I found a replacement and I love it. I was using Xojo for web apps. Tim Dietrich suggested I try PHP, and I’m better for it. Just like any change, it took a bit to get some inertia. Ironically, I opened Xojo to export a class and immediately I experienced its sluggishness.
I can’t see going back to Xojo.
Here’s some info about Xanadu for PHP. It’s not like Xojo, but it’s not buggy either. 
and again, thanks for making this forum away from mothership, doesn’t mean one could replace that easily, but since i was using 4thD before RB, and I’m french,)
4D can make a replacment to xojo it has many included tools like word processing, spreadsheet ect…