# Ruby and windows GUI **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [October 7, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-and-windows-gui/196142 "2010-10-07T12:11:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spaghetticode)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-and-windows-gui/196142/1 "2010-10-07T12:11:41Z")
hello, a friend of mine has asked me to write a quick and simple application that should run only on windows OSes. It should be a desktop GUI application. It’s pretty simple in its working as it should basically just move some given files from one location to a couple of others. I am completely unexperienced on ruby on windows, and have little experience with ruby and GUIs, so here I am with my questions: 1. guess I should pack it with RubyScript2Exe to make it executable on any windows machines, right? 2. is there a (quick) way to build a GUI box that will allow me to select interactively a filesystem path using only the mouse? What library should I stick to? Thanks Andrea ---
**Author:** ![spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spaghetticode)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-and-windows-gui/196142/2 "2010-10-07T12:47:23Z")
On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 12:10 PM, spaghetticode [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > hello, > > 1. guess I should pack it with RubyScript2Exe to make it executable on > any windows machines, right? > Pretty much. Or you can create a setup archive, including the Ruby > interpreter and your app. It’ll clock in rather heavily, but you have > pretty much perfect control where what goes. > 1. is there a (quick) way to build a GUI box that will allow me to > select interactively a filesystem path using only the mouse? What > library should I stick to? Any will work, and which you want to stick to depends on what GUI toolkits you have worked with already. If your stance is “no preference” or “never worked with GUI toolkits at all”, you could give Shoes[0] a try. [0] [http://shoes.heroku.com/](http://shoes.heroku.com/) – Phillip G. Though the folk I have met, (Ah, how soon!) they forget When I’ve moved on to some other place, There may be one or two, When I’ve played and passed through, Who’ll remember my song or my face. ---
**Author:** ![spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spaghetticode)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-and-windows-gui/196142/3 "2010-10-07T17:40:11Z")
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Am 07.10.2010 12:10, schrieb spaghetticode: > 1. guess I should pack it with RubyScript2Exe to make it executable on > any windows machines, right? No. rubyscript2exe has been abondoned by it’s maintainer. Use OCRA ( [ocra | RubyGems.org | your community gem host](http://rubygems.org/gems/ocra) ) instead. > 1. is there a (quick) way to build a GUI box that will allow me to > select interactively a filesystem path using only the mouse? What > library should I stick to? wxRuby ( [http://wxruby.rubyforge.org](http://wxruby.rubyforge.org) ) has FileDialog and DirDialog for this. Vale, Marvin -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - [http://enigmail.mozdev.org/](http://enigmail.mozdev.org/) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJMree0AAoJEGrS0YjAWTKVl98H+wVGnpsaM0CAI1aarbk5teW4 Zn5A5OmOOmXj7uD83UpTs0sbrDrS3xNijKlNUPMFYLr6N0LAsubITZKmpL/Zy9O5 a2n4nSTb9c0Z2kiUp6mKykmIMJuWJB+BldGB1YhW9PNbDnQ2hrzuF/6gv0dZ1KE1 0OqGMWbZV5krAslftFL29iq8Ka+eppbW0yQAkyPE4+ynIU13vhefXijHvsPI96ih HBUOfIi3yQ5EBocQtTU19oqUCSFSHBfzg20MJPM+JVX6EQbPeUe0lKWWa7PubP+i LMfzetp2Q//IH67y5ZDw5mK1Y8wk907ztf1F+Gtu0jKhKLcXcaUIh4F/iihN+KE= =/a/m -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ---
**Author:** ![spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spaghetticode)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-and-windows-gui/196142/4 "2010-10-07T17:52:29Z")
I agree with Quintus, OCRA and wxRuby are the way to go. If you want to see an example of an application I created for that check out [http://github.com/javaalley/dragons\_keep](http://github.com/javaalley/dragons_keep). I also used datamapper for a database engine. * * * Allan D. [http://www.linkedin.com/in/javaalley](http://www.linkedin.com/in/javaalley) ---
**Author:** ![spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spaghetticode)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-and-windows-gui/196142/5 "2010-10-14T01:30:36Z")
> a friend of mine has asked me to write a quick and simple application > that should run only on windows OSes. It should be a desktop GUI > application. It’s pretty simple in its working as it should basically > just move some given files from one location to a couple of others. recommend jruby + swing + rawr -r ---
**Author:** ![spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@spaghetticode](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/spaghetticode)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-and-windows-gui/196142/6 "2010-10-07T20:05:56Z")
Allan D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I agree with Quintus, OCRA and wxRuby are the way to go. If you want to see > an example of an application I created for that check out > [http://github.com/javaalley/dragons\_keep](http://github.com/javaalley/dragons_keep). I also used datamapper for a > database engine. Thanks to everyone for the bootstrap, that was exactly what I needed Andrea