# Native cross-compiling (-packing) with GUI **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 23, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/native-cross-compiling-packing-with-gui/51013 "2005-12-23T20:45:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Meillo\_r\_e\_t\_u\_r\_n\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Meillo\_r\_e\_t\_u\_r\_n\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Meillo_r_e_t_u_r_n_S)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/native-cross-compiling-packing-with-gui/51013/1 "2005-12-23T20:45:42Z")
Hi community, i’m brand new to Ruby, but i like what i’ve seen by now. After some time with Lazarus ( [http://lazarus.freepascal.org](http://lazarus.freepascal.org) ) and gcj ( [http://gcc.gnu.org/java](http://gcc.gnu.org/java) ) i unfortunately haven’t found what i am really looking for. I hope i’ll find it in Ruby. I want: 1. coding on a GNU/Linux-machine 2. creating GUI-programs (if possible with the luxus of a GUI-designer) 3. compiling (or packing) against linux _and_ win32 (=cross-compiling) ( 4) the compiled executable should fit on one 1.44-floppy … if possible ) my aim: I want to share my programs to friends of mine (mostly windows-user), and i dont want any installation-routine - i just want one executable (or a folder with exe, dll/so, textfiles, etc) - so that i can explain them: “download [file] from [url], unzip, and double-click on [name].exe” i searched the web for the last 3 days, but couldn’t find really anything that matches point 3) from above - i tried exerb (of course) but couldn’t create a working fox-gui-program (perhaps that was just a fault of some miss-matching versions :-? ) … but fox could be good - i think Then i tried RubyScript2Exe, but it’s not possible to cross-compile with it (will it ever be??) (does it run through wine? - haven’t tried yet). Another problem with it: i can’t use UPX with a RubyScript2Exe-OutputFile … dont know why. so, if someone of you does have any hints, ideas, links, experiences, etc for me - please tell me about them. … and dont try to convince me to give up my goals - you wouldn’t succed 😉 so far Meillo r e t u r n s ---
**Author:** ![Meillo\_r\_e\_t\_u\_r\_n\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Meillo\_r\_e\_t\_u\_r\_n\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Meillo_r_e_t_u_r_n_S)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 4:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/native-cross-compiling-packing-with-gui/51013/2 "2005-12-24T16:08:58Z")
Le 23 déc. 05, à 14:44, Meillo r e t u r n s a écrit : > I want to share my programs to friends of mine (mostly windows-user), > fault of some miss-matching versions :-? ) … but fox could be good - > i > think > Then i tried RubyScript2Exe, but it’s not possible to cross-compile > with > it (will it ever be??) (does it run through wine? - haven’t tried yet). I don’t think it will be possible to cross-compile with RubyScript2Exe. My quick experiment of ruby with wine was not very successful. Although, one thing that stopped me is that wine implementation is based on win98 and the tools from win32-utils[1] works only on 2000/XP. It might be possible to get wine to work as 2000/XP, not sure. Maybe it is doable to use qemu or another hardware emulator to test/package your script on windows without leaving your linux machine. At this point, I also do all my development on Linux, but when the time comes to package the app for windows, I run it on windows. At least to see what it looks like and iron out the remaining cross-platform wrinkles. Guillaume. [1] [http://rubyforge.org/projects/win32utils/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/win32utils/) ---
**Author:** ![Meillo\_r\_e\_t\_u\_r\_n\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Meillo\_r\_e\_t\_u\_r\_n\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Meillo_r_e_t_u_r_n_S)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/native-cross-compiling-packing-with-gui/51013/3 "2005-12-24T16:54:06Z")
> I don’t think it will be possible to cross-compile with > RubyScript2Exe. Indeed, cross-compiling with RubyScript2Exe is not possible. Because of the gathering of files from your own Ruby installation, RubyScript2Exe creates an executable for the platform it’s being run on. In theory, you could trace the application on Linux and gather the library files and gems it uses from the Windows version of Ruby. I’ve investigated that and it didn’t make me happy. For me, personally, there was no need for it either. > Maybe it is doable to use qemu or another hardware emulator > to test/package your script on windows without leaving your > linux machine. I run Linux on my laptop. On top of that, I installed Windows 98 in a virtual machine, using QEMU, and Windows 2000 in another. Such a virtual machine is just one big file on the native machine. When I have to boot a (not _the_) instance of Windows 98, I simply run “win98clone abc”, which copies the original win98.img to win98-abc.img (if it doesn’t already exist…) and starts the virtual machine. In my win98-dev.img (created with “win98clone dev”) I installed Ruby+GEMS+LIBS, FPC, RubyScript2Exe, Tar2RubyScript and other tools I need to build an application. When it’s time to test the executable, I run “win98clone test”, which results in win98-test.img, another copy of the original win98.img. No Ruby, no tools, just Windows 98. (Both Windows 98 machines run concurrently on top of Linux!) Hopefully, this machine is able to boot the application.exe I created on the development machine… There’s one directory (/scratch) on my native machine that’s available as S:-drives in all Windows machines. Transferring data from one machine to another is no problem at all. Conclusion: - Develop the application on Linux. - Build application.exe on Windows98-dev. - Test application.exe on Windows98-test. gegroet, Erik V. - [http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/](http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/) ---
**Author:** ![Meillo\_r\_e\_t\_u\_r\_n\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Meillo\_r\_e\_t\_u\_r\_n\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Meillo_r_e_t_u_r_n_S)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/native-cross-compiling-packing-with-gui/51013/4 "2005-12-23T21:49:06Z")
Meillo r e t u r n s wrote: > I want: > > 1. coding on a GNU/Linux-machine No trouble. You just need to find yourself a decent GUI. I’ve had good experience with jEdit and its Ruby plug in on Win32. It might work for you as well. > 1. creating GUI-programs (if possible with the luxus of a GUI-designer) I’d definitely go with GTK2 here. It’s portable and native looking (not 100% to OS X, but there’s work on that) on lots of platforms. It’s Ruby bindings are highly comfortable and will make you feel like you are coding in Ruby. And there’s Glade which will let you drag&drop GUIs together and save them to an XML file. It’s then very easy to load those XML files from Ruby and to actually make things happen when widgets are clicked etc. > 1. compiling (or packing) against linux _and_ win32 (=cross-compiling) > ( 4) the compiled executable should fit on one 1.44-floppy … if > possible ) There’s no compiling, but at least for Win32 and OS X there is RubyScript2Exe. I’m not sure if it is also available for Linux, but if everything else fails you will be able to pack all your files into a single Ruby file for all platforms. And to binaries for others. Ruby executables tend to be bigger than applications written in C and Pascal, but the situation is still quite good. A game I wrote used 385 KB after UPX packing it. That is without additional SDL DLLs and data, however. I’m not sure if a single floppy disk is possible when also including the GTK2 libraries. Also, GTK2 might need to be installed separately so that your application works. This is a very simple procedure, however. Basically you just have to click “Next” in the installer a few times. X-Chat and Freeciv seem to include GTK2 itself in their installers, lately. So that is probably easy to do as well. TK will probably work without any setup, but it does less for you, the programmer. > Then i tried RubyScript2Exe, but it’s not possible to cross-compile with > it (will it ever be??) It sounds very possible. I’m pretty sure the developer would be able to make this work if you ask nicely. > (does it run through wine? - haven’t tried yet). I think so. > Another problem with it: i can’t use UPX with a > RubyScript2Exe-OutputFile … dont know why. This worked fine for me. Tried contacting the developer yet? Here’s a few links: - Ruby-GTK2 library: [http://ruby-gnome2.sourceforge.jp/](http://ruby-gnome2.sourceforge.jp/) - Glade: [http://glade.gnome.org/](http://glade.gnome.org/) - JEdit: [http://www.jedit.org/](http://www.jedit.org/) - JEdit’s Ruby Plug in: [Ruby Editor Plugin for jEdit](http://www.jedit.org/ruby/) - RubyScript2Exe: [http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubyscript2exe/index.html](http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubyscript2exe/index.html)