# Ruby Shoes: Self-contained?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-shoes-self-contained/191766>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 18, 2010, 9:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-shoes-self-contained/191766 "2010-07-18T09:17:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![callyworld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@callyworld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/callyworld)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 9:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-shoes-self-contained/191766/1 "2010-07-18T09:17:19Z")

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I’ve been learning to use Shoes. The included manual indicates that to  
start shoes applications, I must execute Shoes, and then select the  
application I want to run through the file dialog window. This is fine  
for me, the developer, but it seems like there should be some way to  
start Shoes and the application in one command, so I can make this a  
little simpler for my end users. But if I attempt to run "./shoes2.run  
 Shoes says that the application does not exist.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![callyworld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@callyworld](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/callyworld)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-shoes-self-contained/191766/2 "2010-07-18T17:27:44Z")

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Hey Terry-

I’ve been learning to use Shoes.

Awesome!

> This is fine

for me, the developer, but it seems like there should be some way to

> start Shoes and the application in one command, so I can make this a  
> little simpler for my end users.

There is! Check out the source for Hackety Hack:

> **[GitHub - hacketyhack/hacketyhack: the coder’s starter kit: sound, animation,...](https://github.com/hacketyhack/hacketyhack)**
>
> the coder’s starter kit: sound, animation, video, messaging in a low-key ruby environment. - GitHub - hacketyhack/hacketyhack: the coder’s starter kit: sound, animation, video, messaging in a low-k...

To build it, you run ‘rake APP=path/to/hackety/hack’ from within the  
shoes  
directory, and then ‘rake APP=/path/to/hackety/hack installer’ to create  
an  
installer. This will build your program as a single binary.

The only downside… there’s NO documentation on this. Hackety is the  
only  
piece of software that is distributed this way, as far as I know. It’s  
on my  
list of things to do before the release of Shoes 3.

But if I attempt to run "./shoes2.run

> Shoes says that the application does not exist.

Did you run it as ‘application name’ or ‘application file.rb’ ?