The wxWidgets API makes use of typical C++ features to support automatic conversion of certain types providing user friendly options for argument specifications. This way for example a developer does not need to explicitly declare a colour object construction where a colour instance value is expected but rather can specify a simple string constant like:

wxPen pen;
pen.SetColour("CYAN"); // instead of pen.SetColour(wxColour("CYAN"));

For the wxRuby API similar support has been achieved for various much used argument types.

Wherever a Wx::Colour object is expected as an argument wxRuby supports the specification of String or Symbol values as a developer friendly alternative. This way the following code is equivalent:

pen = Wx::Pen.new
pen.set_colour(Wx::Colour.new("CYAN"))

pen = Wx::Pen.new
pen.set_colour("CYAN")

pen = Wx::Pen.new
pen.set_colour(:CYAN)

Wherever a Wx::Font object is expected as an argument wxRuby supports the specification of a Wx::FontInfo object. This way the following code is equivalent:

title = Wx::StaticText.new(self, -1, "Title")
title.set_font(Wx::Font.new(18, Wx::FontFamily::FONTFAMILY_SWISS, Wx::FontStyle::FONTSTYLE_NORMAL, Wx::FontWeight::FONTWEIGHT_BOLD))

title = Wx::StaticText.new(self, -1, "Title")
title.set_font(Wx::FontInfo.new(18)
                 .family(Wx::FontFamily::FONTFAMILY_SWISS)
                 .style(Wx::FontStyle::FONTSTYLE_NORMAL)
                 .bold())