# Shoes

Shoes 4 : the next version of Shoes

Repository: https://github.com/shoes/shoes4
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/shoes
Language: Ruby
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: shoes, ruby, jruby, gui, swt, mac-osx, linux, windows, cross-platform
Last push: 2023-11-17T21:43:57+00:00
Link (homepage): http://shoesrb.com/
Link (site_page): http://shoesrb.com/about

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5214, "days_push": 1020, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1605, forks 190 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:10.395284+00:00)

## What it is
Shoes 4 is a Ruby DSL-based GUI toolkit for building small cross-platform desktop applications on Mac, Windows, and Linux, implemented in JRuby on top of SWT with native widgets. It is a from-scratch rewrite of the original Shoes toolkit created by _why, designed to feel like plain Ruby rather than a C library wrapper.

## Use cases
- build a simple desktop gui app in ruby
- create cross-platform graphical programs without c bindings
- teach programming with an easy gui toolkit
- make a small windowed utility with buttons and images
- write a gui script that runs on mac windows and linux
- prototype a desktop app quickly in ruby

## When to choose
- you want a minimal, beginner-friendly Ruby DSL for small GUI apps
- you need the same script to run on Mac, Windows, and Linux with native widgets
- you prefer pure Ruby over C-based GUI bindings and already use JRuby

## When to avoid
- you need a production-grade, fully supported GUI framework with all features and no known issues
- you want to stay on MRI/CRuby rather than installing a JDK and JRuby
- you need complex, high-performance, or heavily customized native interfaces
- you need a toolkit with frequent releases and active development

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: gui, ui-components, desktop-framework
- domain: desktop-applications, cross-platform, developer-tools, education
- platform: ruby, jvm, cross-platform, windows
- tags: gui-toolkit, dsl, jruby, swt, native-widgets, beginner-friendly, ruby-gem, desktop, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- shoes/shoes4 (main) score 23
- shoes/shoes-deprecated (mirror) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:10.395284+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:52:15.512111+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/shoes/shoes4 (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:10.395284+00:00, sha 9bb4d808865c)
  - homepage: http://shoesrb.com/ (fetched 2026-08-29T11:23:52.005258+00:00, sha 2e422d6d959b)
  - site_page: http://shoesrb.com/about (fetched 2026-08-29T11:23:52.015099+00:00, sha 8ed9e7c6ca4d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.