Platform independent distribution of Ruby apps

Ruby
1

I would like to take a Ruby app that I’ve written (that includes a bunch
of .rb files and other resources) and to other platforms (I am using Mac
OS X).

More particulary, I’d like to write as simple as possible instructions
for ech of someone on Mac, Windows and Linux, to install and run my app.

My opening guess (which is probably wrong) is to have them:

  • install ruby from the web site
  • install ruby gems from the web site
  • package my application as a ruby gem, including (somehow)
    specification of other dependent gems
  • have them ‘gem install’ my app

First off, that’s already a bit geeky. And second of all, I am not sure
it would be robust.

Can anyone point me to the latest best practices?

Thanks!!

Pito S.

2

On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 12:07 PM, Pito S.[email protected] wrote:

I would like to take a Ruby app that I’ve written (that includes a bunch
of .rb files and other resources) and to other platforms (I am using Mac
OS X).

A couple of resources to look at:

http://rawr.rubyforge.org/
http://copiousfreetime.rubyforge.org/crate/
http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubyscript2exe/index.html

Of those, I have only ever used rubyscript2exe and that was quite
awhile ago for a very simple app. I’ve looked at rawr since we use
JRuby quite a lot these days, but haven’t actually had a use case yet.
We only really distribute apps internally, and for that we build gems
and serve them from an internal web server.

3

exerb is also an other option, but windows only I believe…
http://exerb.sourceforge.jp/index.en.html

2009/8/26 [email protected]

4

Pito S. wrote:

  • install ruby gems from the web site
  • package my application as a ruby gem, including (somehow)
    specification of other dependent gems
  • have them ‘gem install’ my app

First off, that’s already a bit geeky. And second of all, I am not sure
it would be robust.

Can anyone point me to the latest best practices?

Use JRuby + Monkeybars + Rawr.

Rawr handles the cross-platform packaging, and Monkeybars makes it a
snap to build robust, crossplatform GUI applications.

The .exe and .app files created with Rawr include everything but a JVM,
which is pretty ubiquitous anyway. End users never need to bother with
what language was used or gems or anything of the sort.

–
James B.

www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff
www.neurogami.com - Smart application development