I've done a bit of Googling, but couldn't find anything on this. I'd like to use something like SmartProperties (for lightweight situations) or Virtus (when I absolutely must have industrial-strength validations, etc) as outlets. My experiments, such as they are, aren't helping me any! What, if anything, am I doing wrong? My experiments are basically: require 'virtue' class TestClass attribute :test_attr, String end And then I try to "wire" up a text field from IB to the attribute; the result? Nothing happens. Basically, I need to make sure that when I ask for an integer, I get an integer. And when I want a string - I can reject anything but strings. But sometimes I'd like the "defaults" capability of Virtus & SmartProperty, and I'd definitely like the industrial-strength validations of Virtus when I'm working against the database. In MacRuby terms, am I addressing the right problem!? Did I miss something in my Googling? Thanks in advance! Carolyn