Gamble & odds on future RoR desktop deployability & IP protection?

Rails
1

I’m looking at switching to RoR for development of a commercial
product, but a big issue is that I currently can’t use RoR for
anything other than a classical hosted app.

What are the odds that within say 12 months there will be a robust way
to deploy finished RoR apps to individual desktop PCs & Macs while at
the same time being able to protect the Intellectual Property and sell
licenses etc?

  1. I am aware of Slingshot but this does not appear robust or secure.
  2. I know all software protection can be cracked, but I’m talking
    “reasonable protection” here.
2

Hi Mitch,

mitch wrote:

I’m looking at switching to RoR for development of a commercial
product, but a big issue is that I currently can’t use RoR for
anything other than a classical hosted app.

Rails is a framework for building web-based, database-driven
applications in
Ruby. I think what you’re looking for is a framework for building
desktop /
thick-client applications in Ruby. That’s not Rails.

What are the odds that within say 12 months there will be a robust way
to deploy finished RoR apps to individual desktop PCs & Macs while at
the same time being able to protect the Intellectual Property and sell
licenses etc?

Pretty much zero. I don’t have any experience with the desktop /
thick-client frameworks for Ruby, but there are some. You probably want
to
ask on the ruby-talk list ([email protected]). If you’re willing
to
run your app in a JVM, JRuby may give you the ‘security’ you’re looking
for.

HTH,
Bill