JRuby on RCP for EclipseCon 2008

Long Talk submission:

"Writing SWT/JFace presentation code in Java can be very verbose and may involve a lot of boiler-plate work. Additionally, Java syntax makes it hard to map the code to the actual user-interface, making maintenance difficult and time-consuming. Enter the world of scripting with JRuby, a JVM implementation of Ruby, which is an Object-Oriented dynamic language that has an incredibly succinct syntax and many features that can help improve code readability and quicken testing cycles. For example, with Ruby blocks, widgets can be nested within composite widgets in a way that maps closely to how the user-interface looks like. This is similar to how HTML tags in an HTML document can be nested within other tags and map closely to how visual components are shown in a web-page. Due to the dynamic nature of JRuby, the user-interface can also be tested while it is being developed, thus improving productivity considerably. Furthermore, Ruby’s terse syntax helps in writing easier to understand business logic by quickly authoring a domain specific language and employing it in the implementation of business use-cases. A sample application will be demonstrated to clearly illustrate the benefits of JRuby in RCP development. Attendees will walk away with good knowledge of what JRuby provides over plain Java and a solid understanding of how JRuby can improve maintainability and productivity while building RCP applications. This talk is for Java developers who are familiar with Eclipse RCP development and Ruby developers who are interested in doing desktop application development with Eclipse RCP."